‘Capital Pride Parade’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

The D.C. Council, in a vote of 11-2, has passed a bill recognizing gay marriage in the District. The two no votes were Yvette Alexander and Marion Barry. We didn’t catch all of the pre-vote debate but both Barry and Harry Thomas gave pretty energetic support for their opposing positions, both invoking the Founding Fathers. If you missed it and want to watch yourself the video will eventually be posted here in the archive for week 5.

This is the first reading for this bill, meaning that we’re not even at the point yet where the mayor’s signature is sought. The bill will be placed on the agenda for another council meeting for its second reading. By law that’s no sooner than 14 days out, but the actual next scheduled [edited] legislative meeting is January 5th of next year. At that point, if it passes again, it goes on to the mayor.

The mayor’s signature is expected, at which point… it’s still not law. It’ll get an act number and get sent on to Congress, who will have 30 days to issue a joint resolution condemning it. If President Obama approves that resolution then we’re tanked and the law doesn’t go into effect. Expectations are that this isn’t going to happen, though there’s always a possibility when you’re only barely allowed to govern yourself.

At this pace, and allowing for some time for the city offices to get their process in order, the soonest we likely will see gay marriages in the District is in March of next year.

Edit: Whoops. The next scheduled legislative meeting is on Jan 5, however the committee of the whole will meet on Dec 15th and may consider the matter then, though no published agenda is yet available.

Second edit: My initial reading of the DC process was in fact correct; Phil Mendelson’s legislative assistant Michael Battle confirmed for me that the second reading for the bill must happen at a legislative meeting, not the committee of the whole. One last meeting may happen before year’s end, however currently none is scheduled till January.

‘The End.’
courtesy of ‘rubberglovelover’

The NTSB will be investigating Sunday’s Metro crash which totalled three Metro cars, and damaged nine more, as well as causing minor injuries to three WMATA employees. Metro has yet to release some important data in the crash, and we’re hoping that the NTSB will force some cooperation and information sharing, as the crash was hard enough to derail 2 cars from the track, which suggests that it was more than the safely allowed speed of 3mph, and probably significantly so.

Metro’s safety track record can best be summed up as Atrocious. Many deaths, several suicides, and far too many accidents on both the Metrorail and Metrobus systems. We’re still waiting for the formal report from the NTSB on June’s crash which claimed 9 lives, and I suspect this one will be no less damning for the system as a whole. What will happen from here? Can GM Catoe withstand another accident like this? There’s at least one call for him to step down, and I’d personally tend to agree that his lack of leadership and safety-orientation seems to be at odds with the needs of the current system.

‘#32’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

The Obamas are hosting a large red ribbon on their doorstep, symbolizing solidarity with people infected with the virus. George Mason University is displaying a 1,200-square-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt as a part of the school’s HIV Awareness week (where they’re also capitalizing on an opportunity to offer free HIV testing!). And the Whitman-Walker Clinic will hold a candlelight vigil at 5:30 p.m. in Dupont Circle. The World Bank is even getting in on the action with a speaker panel.

Already this morning, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) joined DC HIV/AIDS organizations and DC residents to kick off the “Save D.C. Syringe Exchange Program Day.” The groups gathered to oppose a a virtual ban on D.C. using its local funds for syringe exchange programs.

And, it was just announced that DC will host the 2012 World AIDS Meeting at the DC Convention Center. The International AIDS Conference is the premier biennial global gathering for those working in the field of HIV research, policymakers and activists. The conference will take place July 22-27, 2012.

With almost 3 percent of the DC population suffering from HIV/AIDS, how are you honoring World AIDS Day?

‘Curbside Cupcakes’
courtesy of ‘Amberture’

Congratulations to Sam, the fantastic baker behind Curbside Cupcake, who got engaged yesterday! They’re running a special: if you ask Sam why he’s such a lucky guy, you get two cupcakes for $5. Today they’re serving Classic Vanilla, Classic Chocolate, Red Velvet, Chocolate w/Cream Cheese top, & Vanilla w/chocolate top, and they’ll be starting at GWU today. Follow their Tweets for up-to-date location info

Alex Ovechkin tonight engaged in some brutal hockey-playing, and found himself knocked out of the game, both by injury, and by the refs, who ejected him for an illegal knee-on-knee collision with the Hurricanes Defenseman Tim Gleason. The hit is absolutely brutal, and the ejection is possibly deserved, but of more concern is his recent violent streak: it’s his second game misconduct penalty in three games (he was ejected this weekend for boarding against Buffalo) and is his third serious violation of league rules this season.

It’s not clear how bad Ovi’s knee injury is, we’ll know more in the morning, probably also with a league ruling over his hit on Gleason. The Post’s Tarik El-Bashir caught up with Ovechkin after the game, who had no comment, but was walking without a brace or crutches, which may indicate it wasn’t that serious. The question becomes, though, is Ovi too brutal?

‘Holding Pattern’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

It sounds fishy, but WTOP has it on good authority that it’s possible that a surge in a 5000-series car that lead the striking train could have caused Sunday’s wreck. The “surge” could happen in a 5000-series car going below 3mph, which would then drive it up to over 5mph. I’m not sure how you could total three metro cars in a 5-7mph crash, but it’s still not entirely clear what happened.

Here’s hoping we get a bit more information from Metro in the coming days.

‘Meisje met jonge leeuwen in Artis’
courtesy of ‘Nationaal Archief’

Obviously wish #1 is a good home. If you’ve already got as many little furry children as you can handle or can’t adopt for some other reason, well, you can still help the four-legged needy.

Fairfax animal shelter put out a cutely-worded announcement that they have a holiday gift wishlist of their own, but the fact is that all our local societies have needs – yuletime or not – and many will take in-kind donations. The Washington Human Society also will take in-kind donations if you’d like to give rawhide chews rather than money – though they’ll take cash too. The Arlington Animal Welfare League will also take your donations of money or stuff[pdf].

The Montgomery Country shelter only explicitly mentions monetary donations; same for the Prince George’s County shelter. But if you really want to give stuff rather than cash, give them a call – it’s possible they’d be happy to have it.