The President's Proposal

Thursday's bicameral bipartisan meeting at Blair House

The Recovery Act: Success Stories in the States

Last summer, the Alliance Defense Fund ("ADF")--an Arizona legal organization with a budget in the tens of millions funded by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and other anti-gay fundamentalist ministers--filed a referendum challenging the City Council's recognition of marriages of gay and lesbian couples performed out of state. Their front man was Harry Jackson, pastor of a church in Beltsville, Maryland.

Stein reacted quickly. Our counsel appeared before the DC Board of Elections to argue that Jackson's referendum violated DC's 1977 Human Rights Act, and Stein was instrumental in the Board's first favorable ruling, which overturned prior contrary law. A few weeks later, Stein was the only community organization - LGBT or otherwise - to defend the DC Board of Elections in Court. And we prevailed.

A couple of months ago, the ADF tried again and just as before, the DC Board of Elections found in Stein's favor. But this time in court, the ADF had a new tactic. They challenged DC's Human Rights Act itself, arguing that the City Council thirty years ago had no right to bar a popular vote on discrimination in DC.
"Judge Macaluso's well-reasoned opinion demolished this new ADF argument," Stein's counsel Mark Levine said today, "showing conclusively that the District's 1978 City Council knew exactly what it was doing when it barred a public vote on discrimination. The Court's persuasive citation of a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision--and her additional showing that illegal initiatives like this one must be barred--are both likely to be withstand any appeal."
The opponents of marriage equality are not taking this lying down. In addition to a possible appeal, they have filed yet another referendum and yet another initiative, making four separate attempts, thus far. Stein is already preparing for those hearings and stands ready to defend marriage equality in the District of Columbia no matter what our enemies do.
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club has a long history of serving LGBT interests in the District and takes pride in the fact that our thirty-plus years of activism is finally seeing its fruition. From the passage of the original Human Rights Act of 1977, through long years of improving DC's laws, to the final culminating decision of the City Council and Mayor Fenty last month to allow full marriage equality, Stein has been instrumental in electing progressive leaders and working with them to approve fair legislation such as this. Stein has also been working alongside and in collaboration with other LGBT advocacy organizations such as GLAA and DC for Marriage to ensure that our right to marry becomes a reality.
We anticipate a happy celebration in March, following the Congressional review period, when we hope and expect to witness the first gay and lesbian couples' legal marriages in the District.
To view the Court's ruling, in its entirety, please use the following link:

The Board of Elections and Ethics shall consider in a public hearing whether the proposed measure "Preservation of Traditional Marriage One Man One Woman 2009" is a proper subject matter for initiative, at the Special Board Meeting on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 10:30am., One Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, N.W., Suite 280, Washington DC.

The Board requests that written memoranda be submitted for the record no later than 4:00 p.m., Thursday, February 11, 2010 to the Board of Elections and Ethics, General Counsel's Office, One Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, N.W., Suite 270, Washington, D.C. 20001.

Each individual or representative of an organization who wishes to present testimony at the public hearing is requested to furnish his or her name, address, telephone number and name of the organization represented (if any) by calling the General Counsel's office at 727-2194 no later than February 11, 2010.

The Short Title, Summary Statement and Legislative Text of the proposed initiative read as follows:

SHORT TITLE
PRESERVATION OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE ONE MAN ONE WOMAN 2009

SUMMARY STATEMENT
The purpose of this initiative is to allow the citizens of the District of Columbia to vote to preserve traditional marriage as between one man one woman.
• This initiative would define marriage as between one man and one woman.
• This initiative would amend as follows:
• Section 1283 (DC Official Code section 46-401) is redesignated as section 1283 "Marriage is the legally recognized union between one man and one woman. No person may enter into a marriage in the District of Columbia with another person unless it is a man and a woman.

http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/lib/mpdc/serv/solvers/unsolved/pdf/2009/perkins_anthony.pdf.

The murder victim's relatives are being most cooperative about information regarding his sexual orientation. He lived with his mother in the Fairlawn neighborhood.

Dear Members,

2009 was a busy year and thanks to your support the Stein Club was front and center on nearly every major issue impacting our local community.

With your continued support, we will continue to make our voices heard locally and nationally.

2010 will be a busy year as we continue to work to secure marriage equality in the District and as we prepare for the 2010 election cycle and our local endorsements.

PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

Membership Renewal Form.pdf

The letter points out that as supporters of civil marriage equality, we also embrace the principle of free speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which makes our own advocacy possible.

Read the Entire Letter

Jeffrey Richardson, President
Tim Mahony, Vice President of Legislation & Political Affairs
Sheila Alexander-Reid, Vice President of Administration
Jeff Hops, Secretary
Robert Byrer, Treasurer

Candidates were asked a series of questions targeting their knowledge of the DCDSC, the national Democratic Party, and their stance on key issues.

Of the 10 candidates only two opposed same sex civil marriage equality. One who opposed it personally acknowledged that since the DC Democratic State Committee has endoresed same sex civil marriage equality, that as an elected member of the body they would have to support the issue.

The officers and members of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club congratulate members Carlene Cheatam and Ed Patillo and long time supporter Betty Pierce on their election to the DC Democratic State Committee.

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.