Yesterday, DC council voted 12-1 in favor of recognizing gay marriages from other states as legally binding in DC. Former mayor turned councilman Marion Barry was the sole dissenting vote.
More over the fold.
Currently, the bill still needs to be signed by mayor Adrian Fenty, who has said that he will sign it and pass the bill on to Congress. Then, if congress doesn't object for 30 days, it passes to President Obama for his signature, and the bill becomes law.
After the historic vote, Marion Barry said:
"All hell is going to break lose," Barry said. "We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this."
This is disturbing on a number of levels.
First off, it wasn't that long ago that inter-racial marriage was illegal in many places. Now, after that fight being won, some of the people who are the beneficiaries of that struggle, like Marion Barry and his supporters, want to deny the same rights to another minority group, using the same tired arguments that were made against them? Does it really take an outsider to see how hypocritical this is?
Second, threatening violent action? This makes most of the reactions of the far right milquetoast by comparison. I can understand getting agitated about rights that you are fighting for - but to agitate to deny rights to others is wrong on so many levels, and smacks of fascism. One group keeping another under it's jackboots for simply because they are different is never justified. I truly hope that this is civil war talk is hyperbole and gross exaggeration.
Update: From the quote, it looks like Councilman Marion Berry believes that he represents the entire Black community. This is not my personal opinion. Apologies to anyone who didn't get what I was trying to say. The point of this diary was to point out the inflammatory and ill-conceived remarks of Councilman Marion Barry and the hypocrisy of anyone in the black community who opposes gay marriage based on the same arguments that were used against inter-racial marriage. I hope this clears things up, and I pledge to be more careful in my diaries in the future.