Gay Rights Convergence

This week, the Washington, D.C. City Council passed a law saying that the District will recognize marriages between same-sex couples performed in other states. Mayor Adrian Fenty will have to sign the law, of course, and Congress and President Obama will also have to sign it. If the bill makes it to Congress, Ezra Klein points out that it will likely land in the lap, at least temporarily, of Rep. Stephen Lynch, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee.

Lynch, coincidentally, will also probably have some jurisdiction over the House version of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, once it's introduced by Rep. Tammy Baldwin. That's good news for proponents of the expansions of rights for gay and lesbian couples. As New England gay newspaper Bay Windows reported in 2003, Lynch started his career with a somewhat socially conservative reputation but since has won the admiration and respect of his gay constituents, and a 100 percent vote rating from the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign. It also places a lot of responsibility in Lynch's hands: he could end up guiding the progress of two of the biggest gay rights issues to come up in the new Obama administration.