Humming "At Last" to myself

Well, it's not quite the crest of a massive wave of marriage equality, but it's not nothing.

Via TPM:

The Washington, D.C., City Council voted Tuesday to legalize gay marriage in the nation's capital, handing supporters a victory after a string of recent defeats in Maine, New York and New Jersey.

Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill, which passed 11-2, and gay couples could begin marrying as early as March. Congress, which has final say over Washington's laws, could reject it, but Democratic leaders have suggested they are reluctant to do so.

Allow me to congratulate the City Council of Washington, DC. I am sincerely grateful for their vote. It was the right thing to do.

And to me friends, the Democratic leaders. You had better be plenty reluctant to reject this law. It's bad enough that you are doing precious little advance the cause of LGBT rights at this time. Make things worse, and I may have to sit out an election or two.

Still, opponents plan to try. Members of a group called Stand4Marriage, led by local pastor Bishop Harry Jackson, have met with members of Congress to urge them to oppose the bill.

Attorney Cleta Mitchell said that after Fenty signs the bill and it goes to Congress, the group will ask a district elections board to put a referendum on the ballot asking voters to overturn it. She said in a statement before the vote that the law is a "decision for the people, not a dozen people at city hall."

The group Mitchell represents made a similar request this summer, when the city passed a law recognizing gay marriages legally performed in other states. The board declined to put the issue on the ballot, saying that would violate a city human rights law.

Well, being as it were that the District has a civil rights law, I'm also pleased to know that it prevents a referendum by which the majority could curtail the rights of the minority. And Ms. Mitchell surely understands the concept of representative democracy, and that the "dozen people at city hall" are there precisely for the purpose of making decisions such as this.

I can go into my mid-week blogging hiatus happy to pause on an up note.