Last February, we cheered and cried with our friends and allies when Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire signed a bill that grants civil marriage to all loving, committed same-sex couples. But even as we celebrated, we knew that the opponents of marriage equality would continue to fight. Washington law allows the opponents of a piece of legislation to take their case to the voters by gathering enough signatures to place a referendum on the ballot. A “yes” vote on the referendum is a vote to protect the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. A “no” vote on the referendum is a vote to exclude same-sex couples from marriage."
On December 3, we celebrated Domestic Partnership day in Washington state!
Well, not officially. But it was the day that our “everything but marriage” domestic partnership law went into effect.And given our recent electoral battle, it was truly a day to celebrate!
A little bit of history. For decades, activists in Washington struggled to pass legislation to protect people from discrimination based on perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.In 1997, activists got tired of waiting for the legislature to act and decided to go directly to the voters with a ballot initiative, I-677.The results were devastating.Not only was the initiative rejected by a margin of nearly 60 percent, but for yearsafterwards, legislators refused to even consider the ideaagain.
