Gay marriage could be mere weeks away from becoming a reality in D.C. Legislation permitting same-sex marriage recently passed the D.C. Council, was signed by mayor Adrian Fenty and now only needs to survive a 30-legislative-day review period in Congress to become a law.

Although Congress will ultimately decide the bill’s fate based on their views of same-sex marriage, the review also resurrects the long-standing debate over D.C.’s federal oversight and lack of representation. Congress should acknowledge the legitimacy of such legislation and respect D.C.’s wishes by leaving the bill alone.

Even ignoring the issue of Congress’s power over the District, representatives should leave the bill alone because denying same-sex marriage is senseless minority discrimination. There’s no reason that those against homosexuality can’t simply avoid homosexual events such as gay weddings. The legalization of gay marriage would have little effect on the daily lives of its opponents, but that doesn’t stop them from crusading to deny homosexuals equal legal rights. Some critics also fail to realize that new laws would leave the institution of religious marriage alone and only legalize civil marriage.

The arguments for same-sex marriage are all valid, but the real reason Congress should let this bill pass is because they have no reason to be meddling in this. The Constitution does give Congress the power “To exercise exclusive legislation in all Cases” over D.C., but the key word there is “exercise.”  The lack of consensus and sensitive nature of same-sex marriage make this an issue on which Congress shouldn’t exercise its power.

With an 11-2 council vote, D.C.’s government has clearly shown its view on gay marriage. It would be a different story if D.C.’s bill was obviously unjust or immoral, but the  broad spectrum of state homosexuality laws indicate that there is no clear-cut right or wrong side of gay marriage.

A congressional rejection of the bill would show hypocrisy to the extreme among certain representatives. Most conservatives who oppose gay marriage normally praise limited government and rail against big government interference in local decisions, but that principle apparently doesn’t apply to local decisions that they don’t like. Our founding fathers certainly didn’t intend for Congress to use its oversight as a sounding board on hot-button topics.

No matter what happens with this bill, the debate over gay marriage will continue in the District. Congress should avoid the debate altogether by letting D.C. figure out the issue of gay marriage for itself.