Press Release - July 8th, 2009

Thanks to the Stein Club, same-sex couples living in DC who had been married in other jursidicitions now have their marriages legally recognized by the District.

The law went into effect one minute after midnight on Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Legal recognition will affect many things, including tax filing, health care benefits, inheritance law, and hospital visitation rights.

Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the DC affiliate of National Stonewall Democrats, was instrumental in lobbying for the recognition law.

A Stein Club email to supporters outlined the ways in which they worked for the law's passage:

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.