Openly gay D.C. City Councilman David Catania announced that he and several of his colleagues may introduce a bill to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in Washington, D.C.

According to The Washington Blade, Catania said the bill would become a reality if a majority of the council’s thirteen members signed on as co-authors of the legislation. Mayor Adrian Fenty and all but one member of the City Council have pledged their support for the legislation.

The Blade reports:

But a number of activists have joined some Council members in questioning whether 2009 would be the best time to introduce such a bill considering the decision by voters last week to ban same-sex marriage via ballot measures in California, Arizona and Florida.

“There isn’t going to be an easy way to do this,” Catania told the Blade. “It’s going to be a lot of work to do. But I believe that at the end of the day, the citizens of the District of Columbia are fair-minded people.”

Catania said he is discussing the issue with local activists and plans to consult with the city’s non-voting congressional delegate, Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.), over whether to move ahead with a same-sex marriage bill next year.

Catania said he and his Council colleagues are aware of the contentious campaign in California by same-sex marriage opponents that led to the passage of Proposition 8. The ballot proposition amends the state’s constitution, reversing a California Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that legalized same-sex marriage.

A same-sex marriage bill being worked on for D.C. would clearly distinguish between civil marriage, which confers the legal rights of marriage, and the religious aspect of marriage, which would remain under the full control of churches, Catania said.

“This is not going to be a law constructed by our courts,” he said. “It will come from our elected city government.”