Washington DC gay rights under federal attack

As you may know from civics class, the District of Columbia lives in a bizarre never never land where they are officially supervised by the Congress of the US--a Congress in which the DC residents have no representation, as they have no House or Senate member. They only were allowed limited self-governance with a mayor and city council in 1973. And darned if that DC city council didn't decide to recognize gay marriage. So Congress Has to Do Something. From Salon:

Some threats, apparently, are grave enough to justify throwing any principle out the window..... A group of conservative House members who believe in limiting federal involvement in local affairs introduced legislation Thursday that would block Washington, D.C., from recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere in the United State. The bill would overturn local legislation that the D.C. Council passed last month. The nearly three dozen small-government conservatives who sponsored the House bill evidently decided the risk of letting gays and lesbians marry was far more dangerous than whatever evil might come from letting the federal government muck around with local business.

So much for consistency, principles, and justice. Poor DC is probably not surprised, but fortunately most people don't think this posturing will get very far.