After the District of Columbia Council passed a law redefining marriage in the District to include same-sex couples, citizens groups attempted to circulate petitions for a referendum on the new law. D.C. requires such petitions to be submitted to the D.C. Board of Elections for approval and, as expected, the Board said there could be no referendum because it would conflict with the District’s Human Rights law. Today, a D.C. Superior Court ruled that the Board was correct in its interpretation of the Human Rights act. This, despite a 1995 decision of the D.C. Court of Appeals that the marriage law (a man and a woman at the time) did not conflict with the Human Rights act. Given what has happened with marriage votes in California and Maine, it is not surprising that D.C.’s gay-marriage boosters are doing anything they can to keep this off the ballot.