lgbtQnews - nw_gaynews

For first time, anti-gay campaign messages didn’t work in Washington

newseditor — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:21:43 -0800

Unlike voters in Maine, voters in Washington were not given the opportunity Tuesday to vote on a law that would have granted equal rights and the dignity of civil marriage. Voters in Washington approved a law that still denies to gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. But in voting for Referendum 71 in Washington, voters rejected the same campaign messages that worked this week in Maine and last year in California.

In many ways, the campaign for gay and lesbian (and senior) partnership rights in Washington was a stealth campaign. When the Referendum 71 campaign was mentioned at all in national stories, it was usually as a footnote to a story about the high-profile campaign in Maine to keep that state’s full marriage equality law on the book.

Compared to the expensive campaigns in Maine on Question 1, the campaigns on either side of R-71 were low budget affairs, even though the population of Seattle and King County alone (1,875,519) is greater the whole population of Maine (1,316,456). The two campaigns in Maine spent more than $7 million, while the two opposing camps in Washington spent just $2.1 million in a state where media markets are far more expensive. (In both states, supporters of gay and lesbian partnerships spent more than opponents.)

The Maine law was revoked, of course, when voters there affirmed Question 1. The marriage equality law was overturned by a margin of 53-57 percent. In Washington, by contrast, voters approved only slightly more limited partnership rights for gay and lesbian couples by upholding the state’s “everything but marriage” law.

The law was approved by 52 percent of Washington voters.

Referendum 71 asked Washington voters to weigh in on a measure passed early this year by the legislature and signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire that declares “state-registered domestic partners shall be treated the same as married spouses.”

The main reason R-71 was a footnote is that it does not grant marriage equality to gay and lesbian couples. In fact, the law it upholds specifically denies to domestic partners the term “marriage”.

But the vote against R-71 was a vote against the same campaign arguments and tactics that have proven relentlessly successful for anti-gay campaigns elsewhere.

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Election note: Ref 71 finally called ‘approved’ by AP

newseditor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:25:00 -0800

Although it’s been obvious for a day or so, Associated Press is now calling Referendum 71 approved.

From the brief item by AP’s Rachel La Corte:

Washington state voters have approved the state’s new “everything but marriage” law, marking a significant expansion of rights for gay couples who are registered as domestic partners. …

With about 69 percent of the expected vote counted Thursday in unofficial returns, R-71 was leading 52 percent to 48 percent.

In the secretary of state’s 4:30 update, the measure passed the 52 percent barrier for the first time, to stand at 52.34 percent.

King County has only 13,800 votes left to count, but several other Puget Sound counties where the measure is passing also have outstanding votes, including 45,000 in Snohomish County where R-71 approval clings to a slight lead of 51.48 percent.

Pierce County, on the other hand, still has 50,000 outstanding ballots. R-71 is being rejected there by a margin of 53-47.

Source: Local News | Gay partnership measure approved by voters | Seattle Times Newspaper

Advocates and couples try to make sense of Tuesday’s ‘devastating’ vote results

newseditor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:20:46 -0800

Source: Bangor News, Associated Press, Portland Press Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times

“Devastating” is an adjective often used in press articles to describe the results of Maine’s vote on Question 1 Tuesday that denies marriage rights to the state’s gay and lesbian couples.

Vote totals from the opposite side of the country were only slightly more hopeful. With Referendum 71, voters in Washington weighed in on a law that grants the rights and responsibilities of marriage to lesbian and gay couples, but specifically denies them the use of the term “marriage”.

The Washington referendum appears to have passed, based on still-incomplete results from the state’s mail-only voting system, but it could garner support from only a slim majority of voters. (The approval rate is likely to grow, however, because an estimated 129,000 remain to be counted in King County where over 66 percent of voters so far have approved the measure.)

The vote on Question 1 in Maine was personally devastating for gay and lesbian couples there.

“I’m very sad about that,” said Kay Wilkins, 69, a volunteer for the marriage equality campaign.

Wilkins and her partner of 21 years, Diana Kate, had been hoping to have a wedding as soon as the now-repealed law took effect, Bangor News reports. But she said Wednesday that she doubts that will be possible now. “As we are an older couple, I really begin to wonder whether it is going to happen in our lifetimes,” she told the News.

Mary Bonauto, a lawyer and LGBT advocate who helped run No on 1: Protect Maine Equality campaign, said many people are hurting, including couples who have spent decades in committed same-sex relationships.

“Here we are in a civil-rights struggle. And what do we do in civil rights struggles? We pick ourselves up and we stay the course,” Bonauto told Portland Press Herald.

At a Wednesday rally on the steps of the Portland city hall, about 200 supporters of marriage equality gathered to share hugs and tears, the Press Herald reports.

“Are we disappointed? Yes. We feel deeply what happened to us last night,” said Pat Peard, a longtime champion of LGBT rights.

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Item: Ref 71 approval rate approaches 52 percent

newseditor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:19:30 -0800

::: The approval percentage for Washington’s Referendum 71 has reached nearly 52 percent in the latest figures from the secretary of state’s office, which were released at 4:43 pm PST. The approval rate in Seattle/King County jumped from 65.91 percent in this morning’s count to 66.59 percent in the late afternoon tally. The overall approval rate from all state voters is now 51.83 percent. The counties with the lowest approval rate are grouped in the southeast corner of the state. Voters in Adams and Lincoln counties are rejecting the domestic partnership law by 73-26 percent. Garfield County voters rejected it by a staggering 77-23 percent. Fortunately, however, there are a total of only 7351 combined votes from those three counties, compared with 303,528 total votes so far from King County.

Razor thin margin still favors partner rights in Washington

newseditor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:44:12 -0800

While voters in Maine rejected a law offering full equality in marriage rights to gay and lesbian Mainers, voters on the opposite side of the continent appeared to give tenuous support to a measure that would give slightly more limited rights to gay and lesbian Washingtonians.

The measure in Washington – Referendum 71 – had an ever-so-tenuous lead Wednesday afternoon, with late-arriving mail-in ballots still to be counted. Just 51.03 percent of the state’s voters chose to “Approve” a law passed by the legislature last winter that stops just short of granting marriage to to the state’s registered domestic partners, who can be same-sex couples, or heterosexual partners where one partner is at least 62-years-old.

The law mandates that “state-registered domestic partners shall be treated the same as married spouses”, but specifically denies the term “marriage” to them. Among the rights and responsibilities afforded to partners by the law is the right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner, and rights related to adoption, child custody, and child support.

More than 12,000 people in Washington state are registered as domestic partners. If it had passed, Referendum 71 would not have done away with the underlying domestic partnership law, but would have limited it to a narrow set of rights and responsibilities.

As of the 1:32 pm tally from the secretary of state’s office, 511,651 voters have chosen to approve the law while 490,948 voted to reject it. But because 98 percent of the state’s voters now cast their votes with mail-in ballots, votes are still arriving at county election offices. Votes will continue to be counted as long as ballots were postmarked before last night at midnight.

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Oregon’s major LGBT group launches marriage equality drive

newseditor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:13:41 -0800

Source: Oregonian, Just Out, Associated Press
Oregon’s largest LGBT advocacy group, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), is launching a campaign today to persuade the state’s residents that they should reverse their vote of five years ago and support same-sex marriage.

BRO will sponsor rallies and public forums this week in several cities in Oregon to kick off what the group calls a “public education campaign” to explain to voters why the state’s existing domestic partnership laws fall far short of providing the benefits of marriage.

The group aims to put an initiative on the Oregon ballot asking voters to lift the constitutional ban on gay and lesbian marriage that passed in 2004, Portland’s Oregonian newspaper reports. It would probably appear on the 2012 ballot.

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Out lesbian US Attorney gets to work quickly in Seattle

newseditor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:35:39 -0800

Source: Associated Press, Seattle Times, SeattlePI.com, Blog of LegalTimes

Jenny Durkan was confirmed a month ago as US Attorney for western Washington. She’s the first out gay or lesbian to serve in the role, and took a few moments during a busy week to reflect on the significance of that distinction.

“I don’t think I can fully appreciate how important it is to many people to have someone in a role like this who is gay,” Durkan said Tuesday in an interview Associated Press reporter Gene Johnson. “The more people are able to see people in situations where pretty soon that's an invisible characteristic, the better it is for the entire community.”

But she also noted that her sexual orientation is less important – especially in Seattle – than how she performs her job. “In this region I don’t think it’s very remarkable that you have someone who is gay in a position of authority, because it’s woven throughout our culture and has been,” Durkan told AP. “In other parts of the country it might be, but I think a generation from now it will be a footnote.”

But there were also more important things on her plate this week, including a major bust of a Mexican drug gang. Durkan’s office announced yesterday that federal agents had seized 28 pounds of meth, 22 pounds of cocaine, and $200,000 during two-day sweep of arrests and raids on 19 residences and 22 vehicles. They also arrested 14 men who are alleged to be part of a drug gang known as “La Familia”. Two others were indicted but are fugitives, SeattlePI.com reports.

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Item: Judge says anti-gay WA campaign must follow rules

newseditor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:40:00 -0800

A federal judge in Tacoma, WA on Tuesday denied a request to suspend the state’s campaign finance rules to benefit a newly registered right-wing political action group, Seattle Times reports. The group called Family PAC, which plans to help finance the anti-gay campaign to reject Referendum 71, filed suit to suspend a state ban on contributions above $5,000 in the final weeks of a campaign and a requirement to identify some smaller donors. “I do not believe it is in the public interest for court, the week before an election, to intervene and change the rules of the game at the last minute,” US District Court Judge Ronald Leighton said.

Source: Politics | Judge declines to suspend rules on R-71 contributions | Seattle Times Newspaper

Slim majority supports domestic partnership law in WA, poll finds

newseditor — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:48:59 -0800

Source: Washington Poll results, SeattlePI.com

The highly respected Washington Poll has released its eagerly anticipated survey of likely voters in the state, and brings relatively good news for supporters of the state’s domestic partnership law, which faces a referendum vote in next week’s election. A slim majority of likely voters say they are “certain” to approve an expanded version of the law.

An “approved” vote on Referendum 71 would uphold a law passed earlier this year that extends the rights and responsibilities recognized for registered domestic partners in the state. The act is often called the “everything but marriage” law because it grants domestic partners the same rights and responsibilities that a marriage license does, but denies them the name.

51 percent of surveyed voters say they are “certain” to approve the law when they vote. 34 percent say they’re certain to “reject” the law when they vote. Five percent of voters in the survey said they’re leaning toward voting in favor of the law. Another five percent said they’re leaning toward a “reject” vote.

But there is another crucial number that could become vital when votes are counted: Five percent of voters said they are still undecided, and declined to tell pollsters which way they’re leaning.

A summary of poll results is available from the pollsters in pdf format.

Pollsters interviewed 724 voters for their statewide sample. They set the margin of error for the count is plus or minus 3.6 percent.

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Video: Colbert’s unique argument to approve WA’s Ref. 71

newseditor — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:29:48 -0800

The people who circulated the petitions to get Washington’s Referendum 71 on the ballot want to stay in their own anti-gay closet. The referendum asks voters to approve or reject a law widely called the “everything but marriage” act that gives same-sex and senior domestic partners in the state a wide range of rights and responsibilities, but specifically denies them “marriage”.

Stephen Colbert reasoned on last night’s show that the closet-seeking anti-gay folks should really vote to approve the law:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/(0)/The Word - Don't Ask Don't Tell

Source: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252735/october-26-2009/the-word---don-t-ask-don-t-tell