The National March for Equality, Oct. 11, 2009, in Washington. I walked with some great folks from PFLAG.

The District of Columbia City Council voted 11-2 Tuesday to legalize gay marriage in the District. Before the legislation becomes law, the council must approve it again, in a vote scheduled for Dec. 15. If Council approves it again, as expected, Mayor Adrian Fenty must sign it, which he has said he’ll do. But then — get this, you out-of-staters — Congress has 30 legislative days to approve it. Because, you know, Congress is responsible for running the District of Columbia. (It wasn’t until 1974 that the District elected its own mayor and City Council.)

You no doubt learned this in civics class, but pause a moment to think about your city government, and how annoyed you are with it over parks and rec, downtown development, or its distribution of liquor licenses. Then imagine if your council members could be overruled by 535 members of Congress.

The Washington Post had a good discussion of the issues in a live chattoday. Best quote: “I wonder how long it will take for some Republican congressman from some place in the midwest to start legislation to disallow this so he can make a name for himself and put another nail in the coffin of D.C. statehood, just like what happened with the handgun ban.” (Can you say: Thaddeus McCotter?)

Another possible roadblock to the DC same-sex marriage bill turned out to be more of a speed bump, when the Archdiocese of Washington threatened to decline city money for its Catholic Charities if the law is enacted, because it would force the archdiocese to pay its employees’ same-sex partners benefits, and forbid discrimination against adoptive gay parents. The topic was vigorously discussed in 54 comments in the archdiocesan blog. The archdiocese and the city are still at odds on the issue.