By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, DC, March 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court has declined to hear pro-family advocates' requests to stop the District of Columbia's new same-sex “marriage” law, which went into effect Wednesday.
Traditional marriage supporters represented by the Alliance Defense Fund had argued to lower courts that the marriage question should be put to DC voters, but were ignored.
According to ADF, 59 percent of voters in the district say they want to vote on the D.C. Council’s new law changing the legal definition of marriage.
While Wednesday saw the first successful application for a marriage license by a homosexual couple, the partners will wait three business days before their licenses arrive. Although the 30-day Congressional review period has yet to expire, in which Congress could intervene to halt the law, the DC Superior Court has already scrubbed references to “bride and groom” on the licenses, and replaced them with neutral terms such as “spouse.”
The Washington Post reports that Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Beltsville's Hope Christian Church and a leader in the DC-area fight against same-sex “marriage,” said he would continue to press his case in court to “let the people vote.”
When Jackson filed a referendum with the city's Board of Elections and Ethics to let voters decide the marriage question, the request was rejected as a violation of DC law prohibiting “discrimination” against homosexuals.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Appeal Filed to Give D.C. Voters Right to Vote on Gay “Marriage” Law
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020905.html
D.C. Government Quashes Marriage Ballot Initiative as Violation of “Human Rights”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/nov/09111804.html
Gay “Marriage” Law Forces D.C. Archdiocese to End Foster Care
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021711.html