[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2980 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2980

 To protect the democratic process and the right of the people of the 
                District of Columbia to define marriage.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 2, 2010

Mr. Bennett (for himself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Enzi, 
 Mr. Brownback, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Roberts, and Mr. Hatch) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
               Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To protect the democratic process and the right of the people of the 
                District of Columbia to define marriage.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) a broad coalition of residents of the District of 
        Columbia petitioned for an initiative in accordance with the 
        District of Columbia Home Rule Act to establish that ``only 
        marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in 
        the District of Columbia'';
            (2) this petition anticipated the Council of the District 
        of Columbia's passage of an Act legalizing same-sex marriage;
            (3) the unelected District of Columbia Board of Elections 
        and Ethics and the unelected District of Columbia Superior 
        Court thwarted the residents' initiative effort to define 
        marriage democratically, holding that the initiative amounted 
        to discrimination prohibited by the District of Columbia Human 
        Rights Act; and
            (4) the definition of marriage affects every person and 
        should be debated openly and democratically.

SEC. 2. REFERENDUM OR INITIATIVE REQUIREMENT.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including the District 
of Columbia Human Rights Act, the government of the District of 
Columbia shall not issue a marriage license to any couple of the same 
sex until the people of the District of Columbia have the opportunity 
to hold a referendum or initiative on the question of whether the 
District of Columbia should issue same-sex marriage licenses.
                                 <all>