A self-styled elite continues its efforts to force its idea of equality upon the rest of us.

The D.C. Council on Tuesday took the penultimate step to legalized same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital, what many members deemed a final milestone in the near 30-year march to equality in Washington.

The 11-2 vote in favor of allowing legally recognized gay marriages to be performed in the District was the expected outcome. Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry and Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander were opposed.  (continued here)

Does the average citizen want to recognize “same-sex marriages”?  No.  Thus, city officials refuse to consider putting the matter up for a referendum.  They know the proposal would lose.  That is why homosexual activists pursue their agenda through the courts and in aberrant legislative bodies such as the D.C. Council.  In fact, in such venues homosexual activists pursue their agenda with foolishly uncompromising fervor.  Consider this quote from former mayor Marion Barry.

Barry, meanwhile, claimed continued support for the gay and lesbian community “on almost every issue except this one.”

“In a Democracy, there ought to be the right to dissent, not be castigated as out of touch and out of step with the majority,” the former mayor said.   (from here)

What Barry observed is one of those simple, undeniable truths.  If democracy is not to become tyranny, then each of us must be entitled to hold and exercise our own opinions.  Even the majority (which Barry wrongly implies supports same-sex marriage), does not have the right to cavalierly stifle the beliefs of the minority.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what homosexual activists apparently want to do.

Look at the predicament of Catholic Charities.

On Nov. 17, Archbishop Wuerl stated that the same-sex “marriage” bill would cause the city itself to withhold contracts and licenses since Catholic Charities and other religious institutions cannot comply with city mandates to “recognize and promote” it.

The prelate clarified that even if contracts between the city and Catholic Charities end, “the archdiocese and Catholic Charities are committed to continuing to provide services in the District,” despite the fact that “the new requirements by the city for religious organizations to recognize same-sex marriages in their policies could restrict our ability to provide the same level of service that we do now.”

Catholic Charities currently assists 68,000 people in D.C. each year by means of shelter, food, medical and legal care, job training, immigration assistance and other services.  (from here)

If, with the passage of the same-sex “marriage” bill, DC arbitrarily changes its rules, Catholic Charities will not in good conscious be able comply.  In spite of that, the D.C. Council and homosexual activists would have us blame the Catholic Church for its stubbornness.   Such silliness even extends to the governors of Virginia and Maryland.

The governors of Virginia and Maryland blasted the Catholic Church over its threat to stop providing social service programs in the District, if the city’s proposed same-sex marriage law isn’t changed.

The criticism from the governors came on WTOP’s Hands Across the Potomac program Tuesday.

“I’m Catholic, and I think it’s wrong. I don’t think you take your ball and go home,” Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said.

“I think the strategy of threatening to pull back, it doesn’t seem like the church I’ve come up in.”  (continued here)

It would seem our that many of elected officials have become busybodies.  They have the responsibility to keep us from harming each other, but they have no authority to force upon everyone else the beliefs of cherished constituents.  Nevertheless, in their quest to sanctify “same-sex marriage,” they would undermine services for the poor and tread upon religious liberty.    Why?  Because “same-sex marriage” is a “right.”  Why is “same-sex marriage”  a “right”?  Because they say it is a right.  Even though the need and justification for this “right” of “same-sex marriage” just materialized out of the blue, we are also suppose to assume the D.C. Council has the “right” to forcibly impose the “right” of “same-sex marriage” on everyone else.

Homosexual activists portray efforts to protect the institution of marriage as denying the basic right of same-sex couples to marry.   Yet there is no basic right to marry.  That is because marriage involves more than just a contract between two halves of a couple.  Marriage also make demands upon society.  When society recognizes a marriage, it affirms that union and announces its willingness to support it.  Before any community can commit itself to affirm and support a marriage, it has the obligation to set and enforce preconditions.   As the primary goal of marriage is to ensure the welfare of children, society has long accepted as self-evident the precondition that marriage involves the union of a man and a woman.  Moreover, to ensure its support for a marriage is merited, society also sets many other preconditions.  When elected officials and judges arbitrarily change these preconditions, they violate our rights.