The effort to legalize same-sex marriages in Washington faces two key hurdles Monday.
The city’s Board of Elections and Ethics is considering a request by opponents of the measure to have residents vote on the issue, which the D.C. Council is expected to pass.
The group wants a question added to the 2010 ballot that states that “only marriage between a man and woman” is valid in the city.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has asked the board — on behalf on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, a Democrat — to reject the request. He said the issue is not a subject for a ballot initiative because it would violate the D.C. Human Rights Ordinance.
The two-member board will not vote today.
However, a D.C. Council subcommittee is expected to introduce and vote on same-sex marriage legislation this afternoon.
If the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary votes in favor of the legislation, it then faces a final vote before the full, 13-member council. A vote is expected by the end of the year.
The bill would allow civil marriages and exempt clergy from performing them.
Right now, the city acknowledges only same-sex marriages granted in other states. That law went into effect July 7.
Four states — Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Iowa — perform same-sex marriages. New Hampshire is scheduled to begin performing them in 2010, and Maine voters will consider the issue in a ballot initiative in November.
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