WASHINGTON (AP) – The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics on Monday rejected an effort to hold a referendum on whether Washington should recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

The D.C. Council voted last month to recognize marriages performed outside Washington.

The board said a referendum would authorize discrimination based on sexual orientation, which is prohibited under D.C.’s Human Rights Act. According to D.C. elections law, a referendum cannot appear on the ballot if it violates the city’s human rights laws.

Referendum proponents filed an appeal Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court, said Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents supporters of a ballot measure on the issue.

“We’re hopeful that the court will take a different view than the board,” Raum said, adding that he will ask the court for an expedited review of the matter.

For gay rights advocates, the board’s decision was a victory.

“This is the ruling that we were expecting, but I’m still thrilled about it,” said Richard Rosendall of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. “This is a big step toward marriage equality here in D.C.”

Congress, which has final say over laws in the nation’s capital, has until July to act against the D.C. measure. Otherwise, it automatically becomes law. Some council members have said the legislation is the first step toward eventually allowing same-sex marriage in Washington.

Six states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire – allow same-sex marriage.

The same-sex marriage debate in D.C. has garnered national attention not only because it could force Congress to weigh in, but because Washington is the first place in the U.S. with a large percentage of black residents to take up the issue.

Some of the D.C. measure’s most vocal opponents have included area black ministers who say the legislation is the first step to legalizing same-sex unions in the nation’s capital – a move they say could determine the fate of marriage across the country.

Bishop Harry Jackson, who leads a church in Beltsville, Md., said city leaders decided the matter without any public input, which is why he led the push for a referendum.

Meanwhile, in an effort to thwart the city council’s vote, a Republican-led group of lawmakers last month introduced a bill in the House that aims to define marriage in the District of Columbia as between a man and a woman.