The Fight Isn't Over

Tuesday morning, at the stroke of midnight--for the first time in the history of the District of Columbia--marriages of gay and lesbian couples were recognized to the full extent of DC law. For the first time ever, it didn't matter whether a married couple residing in DC was gay or straight.

I am very proud of Gertrude Stein. Because we worked to bring about this historic milestone. For decades we worked to elect sympathetic officials to the City Council and Mayor's office. And as Congress has the power to overturn our civil rights, we bided our time until we had a Democratic Congress and President.

Then, early this year, we endorsed marriage equality and helped persuade our allies on the Council that now, finally, the time was ripe. When opponents of our civil rights held rallies to drum up opposition, we were there, explaining our position to the press and filling the halls of the City Council.

When our adversaries tried, right here in the District, to argue that civil rights for our families was somehow an affront to African-Americans; Gertrude Stein was very active in opposing them. Our members gave interviews and showed District voters that a wide and diverse swath of the DC electorate supported marriage equality.

When a group of ministers, led by Pastor Harry Jackson Jr. of Beltsville, Maryland, sought to hold a referendum on marriage equality, counsel on behalf of Gertrude Stein, Mark Levine, prepared a detailed legal brief and gave oral argument before the Board of Elections, persuading them a referendum on our civil rights would violate the District's Human Rights Act. When the Board ruled in our favor, Jackson and his friends went to court. But Stein was ready for them there too. Less than 24 hours after Jackson's lawsuit was filed, Stein's attorney filed papers and appeared in court, arguing our case. No other GLBT or other citizen organization was there. Stein stood alone with lawyers for the DC Government and Board of Elections to argue for our rights.

And, as you know, we won a tremendous victory, the one that went into effect yesterday.

But the fight is not over. The Allied Defense Fund, founded by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and other extreme anti-gay individuals and organizations, has a budget of more than $15 million a year and access to hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for the legal battles ahead. They have already announced their intent to file an initiative to take away our hard-earned gains in the District.

We can stop them, but these battles cost money. Unlike some other GLBT organizations, we don't have an army of lawyers or lobbyists. And even though our legal counsel has graciously donated his extensive time expended thus far, we need a legal defense fund for the future.