Opinion ID: 2011334
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Traditional Understanding of Marriage

Text: Our statutory understanding is further confirmed by the ordinary sense and meaning traditionally attributed to the word marriage when used to indicate an intimate relationship. See Barbour v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 499 A.2d 122, 125 (D.C.1985) (Words of a statute must be construed by their common meaning and their ordinary sense.); In re Estate of Shutack, 469 A.2d 427, 429 (D.C.1983) (The words of the statute should be construed according to their ordinary sense and with the meaning commonly attributed to them.). Black's Law Dictionary defines marriage as the [l]egal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 972 (6th ed. 1990) (emphasis added). The second edition of Black's Law Dictionary printed in 1910presumably reflecting the common understanding at the time the marriage statute was enacted in 1901defined marriage as the civil status of one man and one woman united in law for life, for the discharge to each other and the community of the duties legally incumbent on those whose association is founded on the distinction of sex. BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 762 (2d ed. 1910) (emphasis added). Similarly, Webster's Dictionary from 1902 defined marry as follows: [t]o unite in wedlock or matrimony; to join, as a man and woman, for life; to make man and wife. WEBSTER'S MODERN DICTIONARY 281 (1902) (emphasis added). The same dictionary today defines marriage as the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife. WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 1384 (1986) (emphasis added). Although this edition of Webster's, as a third definition, defines marriage as an intimate or close union, see id., and commitment and union are undoubtedly fundamental elements of a marriage, we are satisfied that the ordinary understanding of the word marriageboth at the turn of the century when the marriage statute was enacted and in modern times when that statute was amendedmeans the union of two members of the opposite sex. Of course, the meanings of words are continually evolving, and we do not overlook the fact that the terms marriage and gay marriage are used colloquially today to refer to long-term same-sex relationships between gays and between lesbians. See Cory & LeRoy, Homosexual Marriage, 29 SEXOLOGY 660 (1963). Our task, however, is to determine what the legislature intended marriage to mean when the marriage statute was enacted, codified, or amended. Given the statutory language used, buttressed by the usual definition of marriage, we cannot conclude that any legislature for the District of Columbia that has addressed the marriage statute has ever intended to authorize same-sex unions.