Irony

From an article in today's Washington Post about gay marriage rights in DC:

The main bill, authored by council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) would give partners power of attorney, the ability to sue for negligence and immunity from testifying against one another. The bill also would allow the equivalent of prenuptial agreements and create alimony-like obligations in the event of a breakup. The measure would apply to heterosexual domestic-partner couples as well.

Because council members know that any gay marriage bill would most likely be vetoed by the Congress, they're instead considering a measure that would extend just a few of the rights instead, building on previous measures.

And this is where the defense-of-marriage crowd ultimately defeat themselves. Because they won't allow the definition of marriage to be extended to include homosexuals, marriage ends up being dismembered and parceled out a piece at a time to heterosexuals as well as homosexuals, reducing the necessity to marry at all to achieve these privileges.