dreamon
11-04-2009, 11:08 PM
might be a bit out of place but good for Washington after what happened in Maine the same day and here in California last year
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/411801_gayrights03.html
Buoyed by big support from King County, voters Tuesday were approving Washington's new "everything but marriage" law that greatly expands the rights of gay couples.
With more than 1 million votes counted, the Secretary of State's Office reported Wednesnday morning that Referendum 71 was passing 51 percent to 49 percent.
The new gay rights law was being rejected in all the counties in Eastern Washington - as well as Pierce County. It was passing in 10 Western Washington counties, including King and Snohomish. King County voters were approving the law 66 percent to 34 percent
Meanwhile voters in Maine Tuesday night rejected that state's new gay marriage law.
In Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill in May granting same sex domestic partners all the rights of married couples. That same month conservative interests announced they would attempt to overturn the new law and enough signatures were collected enough to place R-71 on the November ballot.
Gay rights supporters were not ready to declare victory Tuesday night.
"We are hopeful, but we are not stupid. We know better than to think we've got this in the can," said said Jody Lane of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "They may be recounting 'til January, for God's sake."
Before the first batch of results came in at 8:15 p.m., supporters laughed as a clip of Stephen Colbert jokingly endorsing Washington's domestic partnership law played on a projector at the Pravda Studios party.
With a bigger crowd by 9:05 p.m., they were still having fun -- but no one was celebrating. "We are really very guardedly optimistic, remembering that a very very large percentage of King County ballots have not been counted," campaign manager Josh Friedes told the crowd.
The Faith and Freedom Network, which opposed the new gay rights law, said in a statement earlier Tuesday that the effort had been worth it.
"People of faith and social conservatives have been revived as a political force in Washington," the statement said. "R-71 has identified upwards of 200,000 people who are willing to take action to protect marriage, the family and children. It has also identified a legal team that has won victory after victory, a team that will now defend R-71 petition signers and their right to anonymous political speech before the United States Supreme Court."
Legal disputes linger
As the statement indicates, the fight over R-71 won't be finished when all the ballots are counted. Legal disputes over the measure have reached the nation's highest court and scholars and government officials across the country are watching to see how they will be resolved and what impact they'll have on open government laws.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the release of names of people who signed R-71 petitions. Justices will consider whether to hear the merits of the case and the issue may not be resolved until next year.
The state of Washington supports the release of initiative and referendum petitions under terms of the Public Records Act that state voters approved overwhelmingly in 1972. The Supreme Court action stopped a lower federal court ruling that the names should be made public.
The petitions contain the names and addresses of people who signed. Gay rights groups have said they want to put the names of people who signed the petitions online. The group Protect Marriage Washington, which collected nearly 138,000 signatures to qualify R-71 for the November ballot, says those people could be harassed, amounting to an infringement on their free speech rights. State officials fear that if the names of referendum and petition signers are kept secret laws like those that require campaign donors be made public could be threatened.
The original domestic partnership law, backed by Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, two years ago, provided inheritance rights in cases where there was no will, hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations. About 6,000 domestic partnership registrations have been filed since July 2007.
Some rights and responsibilities that would be extended to gay and lesbian families under the latest legislation are:
# Workers' compensation coverage.
# The right to use sick leave to care for a spouse.
# Victims' rights, including the right to receive notifications and benefits allowances. Business succession rights.
# Legal process rights, such as the ability to sign certain documents, the requirement to join in certain petitions, rights to cause of action, and ability to transfer licenses without charge.
# The right to wages and benefits when a spouse is injured, and to unpaid wages upon death of spouse.
# The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits disability insurance issues
# Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after death of spouse, conversion rights, and continuing coverage rights.
California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have laws that either recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that afford same-sex couples similar rights to marriage. Thirty states have gay marriage bans in their constitutions.
'Everybody's...nervous'
Little was heard about R-71 on the streets of Capitol Hill Tuesday night, but at the Wild Rose, a lesbian bar that celebrates 25 years in Seattle this December, 30-year-old Daria Kallal could barely contain her energy.
"I'm the type of person -- I know it's going to be approved," she said. Her sweatshirt, which she decorated for a 5-kilometer run on Halloween, had a red check in the front and a big number "71" in the back.
She and her friends sat in front of a TV screen tuned to KING/5 and compared news they found on their iPhones about both R-71 and Question 1 in Maine as questions buzzed through the bustling bar: "Have they called it yet?" "What's the latest?"
"Everybody's just sort of -- I think they're just nervous," said co-owner Shelley Brothers.
Ryan Blackhawke and Breanna Anderson were sure the measure would pass.
"I've always had a good feeling on it," Blackhawke said. "I think it will offset a possible defeat in Maine."
Blackhawke and Anderson "have a dog in the fight," as Anderson put it. Together for 15 years, they were among the first 20 or 30 couples to be granted domestic partnerships in Washington in 2007. Blachawke's family supports their union. Anderson's does not.
"They're fundamentalist Christians," Blackhawke said. "If she got sick, they could effectively cast me out of any decisions."
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/411801_gayrights03.html
Buoyed by big support from King County, voters Tuesday were approving Washington's new "everything but marriage" law that greatly expands the rights of gay couples.
With more than 1 million votes counted, the Secretary of State's Office reported Wednesnday morning that Referendum 71 was passing 51 percent to 49 percent.
The new gay rights law was being rejected in all the counties in Eastern Washington - as well as Pierce County. It was passing in 10 Western Washington counties, including King and Snohomish. King County voters were approving the law 66 percent to 34 percent
Meanwhile voters in Maine Tuesday night rejected that state's new gay marriage law.
In Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill in May granting same sex domestic partners all the rights of married couples. That same month conservative interests announced they would attempt to overturn the new law and enough signatures were collected enough to place R-71 on the November ballot.
Gay rights supporters were not ready to declare victory Tuesday night.
"We are hopeful, but we are not stupid. We know better than to think we've got this in the can," said said Jody Lane of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "They may be recounting 'til January, for God's sake."
Before the first batch of results came in at 8:15 p.m., supporters laughed as a clip of Stephen Colbert jokingly endorsing Washington's domestic partnership law played on a projector at the Pravda Studios party.
With a bigger crowd by 9:05 p.m., they were still having fun -- but no one was celebrating. "We are really very guardedly optimistic, remembering that a very very large percentage of King County ballots have not been counted," campaign manager Josh Friedes told the crowd.
The Faith and Freedom Network, which opposed the new gay rights law, said in a statement earlier Tuesday that the effort had been worth it.
"People of faith and social conservatives have been revived as a political force in Washington," the statement said. "R-71 has identified upwards of 200,000 people who are willing to take action to protect marriage, the family and children. It has also identified a legal team that has won victory after victory, a team that will now defend R-71 petition signers and their right to anonymous political speech before the United States Supreme Court."
Legal disputes linger
As the statement indicates, the fight over R-71 won't be finished when all the ballots are counted. Legal disputes over the measure have reached the nation's highest court and scholars and government officials across the country are watching to see how they will be resolved and what impact they'll have on open government laws.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the release of names of people who signed R-71 petitions. Justices will consider whether to hear the merits of the case and the issue may not be resolved until next year.
The state of Washington supports the release of initiative and referendum petitions under terms of the Public Records Act that state voters approved overwhelmingly in 1972. The Supreme Court action stopped a lower federal court ruling that the names should be made public.
The petitions contain the names and addresses of people who signed. Gay rights groups have said they want to put the names of people who signed the petitions online. The group Protect Marriage Washington, which collected nearly 138,000 signatures to qualify R-71 for the November ballot, says those people could be harassed, amounting to an infringement on their free speech rights. State officials fear that if the names of referendum and petition signers are kept secret laws like those that require campaign donors be made public could be threatened.
The original domestic partnership law, backed by Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, two years ago, provided inheritance rights in cases where there was no will, hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations. About 6,000 domestic partnership registrations have been filed since July 2007.
Some rights and responsibilities that would be extended to gay and lesbian families under the latest legislation are:
# Workers' compensation coverage.
# The right to use sick leave to care for a spouse.
# Victims' rights, including the right to receive notifications and benefits allowances. Business succession rights.
# Legal process rights, such as the ability to sign certain documents, the requirement to join in certain petitions, rights to cause of action, and ability to transfer licenses without charge.
# The right to wages and benefits when a spouse is injured, and to unpaid wages upon death of spouse.
# The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits disability insurance issues
# Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after death of spouse, conversion rights, and continuing coverage rights.
California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have laws that either recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that afford same-sex couples similar rights to marriage. Thirty states have gay marriage bans in their constitutions.
'Everybody's...nervous'
Little was heard about R-71 on the streets of Capitol Hill Tuesday night, but at the Wild Rose, a lesbian bar that celebrates 25 years in Seattle this December, 30-year-old Daria Kallal could barely contain her energy.
"I'm the type of person -- I know it's going to be approved," she said. Her sweatshirt, which she decorated for a 5-kilometer run on Halloween, had a red check in the front and a big number "71" in the back.
She and her friends sat in front of a TV screen tuned to KING/5 and compared news they found on their iPhones about both R-71 and Question 1 in Maine as questions buzzed through the bustling bar: "Have they called it yet?" "What's the latest?"
"Everybody's just sort of -- I think they're just nervous," said co-owner Shelley Brothers.
Ryan Blackhawke and Breanna Anderson were sure the measure would pass.
"I've always had a good feeling on it," Blackhawke said. "I think it will offset a possible defeat in Maine."
Blackhawke and Anderson "have a dog in the fight," as Anderson put it. Together for 15 years, they were among the first 20 or 30 couples to be granted domestic partnerships in Washington in 2007. Blachawke's family supports their union. Anderson's does not.
"They're fundamentalist Christians," Blackhawke said. "If she got sick, they could effectively cast me out of any decisions."