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'Morning gentlemen! Hi, welcome! Nice day!
It's warm out! It's warm inside.
This is just a great day for Washington, great day for All Souls, and a great for my family.
As we told our nine-year-old, 'I think we might get married now!' So, uh, yeah, it's
a good day. Thank God for this day! Thank God for this
day! Thank God that I was able to live to see this day! We can't overlook how fitting
it is that we are in this church, All Souls Unitarian, because this church has a great
tradition of fighting for civil rights and human rights.
For it is in sanctuaries like this all over this city that I and the nearly two hundred
DC clergy who supported this bill will look forward - it's in sanctuaries like this that
we will look forward to celebrating marriages of loving gay and lesbian couples in the District
of Columbia. I can already hear the 'I Do's' echoing in the hall!
It was so subversive, in having the support of our clergy, as overwhelming as it was.
Because that's the M.O. in our country, to pit the GLBT community against faith. And
that is a lie. And what really struck me was the testimony,
the numerous witnesses who came before the council, and who said "You know right now
under the law, we don't-" These were individuals as well as ministers who said - "We don't
have the freedom right now in our church or churches to solemnize marriages between members
of our congregations. We don't have that freedom right now and with this bill, the churches
will have that freedom. And that's a very important point, that we are expanding religious
freedom. So Mayor Fenty, I want to applaud you today
for standing on the side of all the residents of the District of Columbia, I want to applaud
you for standing on the side of justice, and most importantly today I want to applaud you
for standing on the side of love. Friends, will you please join me in welcoming the mayor
of the District of Columbia, the honorable Adrian Fenty.
I couldn't be more proud to be mayor of a city that's standing up, against an issue
that tramples the basic rights and civil liberties of our neighbors, of our families, and of
our friends. Uh, my parents are here with me; please stand, Mom and Dad. My parents
know a little somethin' about marriage equality, marrying almost forty years ago, in a country
and in a time every district didn't agree that interracial couples should be married.
Had they not been able to, I wouldn't be standing here as mayor of the District of Columbia
right now. But from the very beginning of this discussion,
there was one certainty that really cast over all of our discussion, and that certainty
was a critical certainty. And that certainty was that once we passed the bill, this man
would sign it. It's done everyone!
[applause] I'm Reverend Rob Hardies and I'm standing
on the side of love. I'm David Catania, I'm the author of the Religious
Freedom and Civil Marriage Amendment Act of 2009 and I'm proudly standing on the side
of love. I'm councilmember Jim Graham and I stand on
the side of love. Hi, I'm mayor Adrian Fenty and I stand on
the side of love. [laughter, cheers]