The City Council of Washington DC is voting tomorrow on the question of legal recognition of same-sex marriages within the district. The Roman Catholic Church in the district has strongly objected and broadly hinted that, if the measure passes, they may be forced to curtail some of the social services they currently provide to the poor and needy in the district.
Apparently there’s some late maneuvering going on in the last hours before the vote according to Michelle Boorstein:
“I don’t have many details at the moment, except that archdiocesan spokeswoman Susan Gibbs says the meeting was called by council member Phil Mendelson, a co-sponsor of the measure. I spoke with Mendelson just before the holiday and the only potential compromise on the table at the time was the one he and co-sponsor David Catania suggested.
They had asked Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who has said the church will not be able to remain in its social service partnerships with the city if the measure passes, to consider domestic partnership policies used in San Francisco and at Georgetown University. Specifically, the policies’ offering of benefits to employees and someone else of their choosing who lives with them. This is being proposed as a way to give partners of same-sex couples benefits without the church (or anyone else for that matter) having to recognize them as a ‘married couple.’ But Gibbs said last week that such a compromise wouldn’t work for the church, as the measure would still view two people of the same gender as ‘married,’ a violation of traditional church teachings.”
The full report here.