In a prepared statement, Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat who has pledged to sign the bill, announced:
With today’s vote, we tell the nation that Washington state will no longer deny our citizens the opportunity to marry the person they love. We tell every child of same-sex couples that their family is every bit as equal and important as all other families in our state. And we take a major step toward completing a long and important journey to end discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The road to equality is hardly without obstacles, of course, even in the politically and culturally liberal West Coast. Marriage equality opponents are appealing the California decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the always predictably anti-gay Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage, vowed to present same-sex marriage to Washington State voters. NOM is funding efforts to hold a referendum in November aimed at repealing the Washington law before it would go into effect.
“This decision fires up the base and the resentment that elites, political and judicial, are imposing gay marriage without the consent of the governed,” Gallagher told the Chicago Tribune. “I think it’s going to make it easier, not harder, to get the signatures and to put it to the people.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Shannon1981
FIRST! Congrats to my queer sisters and brothers in Washington State!
Maggie, fuck you. The marriage equality train has left the station and you got left behind. Either follow the rest of us into the 21st century or screw the hell off. Shouldn’t you be putting together that donor list, anyway?
Cam
Thank you Washington STATE!!!
Also
“NOM is funding efforts to hold a referendum in November aimed at repealing the Washington law before it would go into effect.”
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Many Newspapers accurately point out that NOM is a Mormon front group and ask why the church is illegally funding these anti-gay political activities.
TASTEY GOODIES
@Shannon1981: HERE, HERE!!! We just need 2 fix the state of Minnesota. Rick “frothy mix” Santorum just won that state- MY birth state, dammit!!!! There is no God!!!!
Chad
Sooner or later there will be to many states for Maggie to fight with, and NOM will find their money running thin.
Shannon1981
@TASTEY GOODIES: Frothy is useless. He’ll be gone soon enough.
christopher di spirito
Amazing huh? New York. Washington. California? Nah. Not gonna’ happen.
Jaroslaw
It seems to me after much reading and life experience almost everything in life is about money, sex, power or a bit of all three. It should be painfully obvious to anyone with 4 brain cells that the biggest “threats” to marriage are (a) divorce and (b) people who live together and never marry, which by the way is an awful lot of people these days. Maggie and her ilk cannot really think they are “saving” America so it has to be a money and power thing. What a waste of time, talent and treasure.
Anna Dark
This is great, I believe it is for the best and finally gay couples can get married in Washington!
G
It’s no where near done yet, though. It will likely come to referendum where the people will vote on the issue. Although, last lime a WA referendum like this came up, the citizens decided to extend gay rights by 53% majority.
Steve
After enacting civil unions, and then enacting marriage equality, Washington is now in essentially the same position that CA was before passing prop 8. A proposition to revoke marriage equality after passage, would very likely be prohibited by the prop 8 decision.
Maggie Ghoul-agher has made a lot of money by opposing equal rights for gays. She has not just opposed marriage equality. She has opposed every official act that would have granted anything to gays. Because she makes so much money, she will not give up. She will continue, just like the “undead” in the movies, long after her cause is fully lost. Eventually, the media will simply ignore her and her organization.
Robert in NYC
I was under the impression the law goes into effect at the end of a 90 day waiting period at which time Governor Gregoire will sign it into law 6 months before the November election. Or does it take effect January 1, 2013? Maybe I’m wrong.
Cam
@Steve: said… “Maggie Ghoul-agher”
LOL!!! Not sure why but that one really really cracked me up!
divkid
@Shannon1981: she misheard and put together a DONER KEBAB list.
Mike in Asheville
@Robert in NYC:
NOT SO FAST QUEERTY, IT AINT LEGAL YET!
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First, Cheers to Washington, this is great news!
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But, there is still work to do. Under Washington State law, once the bill is signed by the governor, there is a 90 day waiting period, to allow, under law, for a “Citizens’ Veto” effort. Opponents of the law have 90 days to collect a sufficient number of valid signatures from registered voters, to subject the new law to a Citizens’ Approval. Should that happen, a ballot question will be posted for the next state-wide election, in this case, the November presidential election.
Currently, a Citizens’ Veto would require 120,000 signatures. For Referendum 71 in 2009, it took the haters 2 months to collect 137,000 signatures with 122,000 determined as valid.
It certainly appears that the haters will be able to force a vote just like they did in 2009. Hopefully, the voters will reject the veto as they rejected the Referendum 71 veto.
iDavid
My hunch is gay marriage in WA and CA will both go on the Nov ballot, and both will get gay marriage permanently, the same day, as a proverbial number of voters give Maggie G the finger.
Mike in Asheville
Just a little more info:
When Washington State approved the “Everything But the Word Marriage” Civil Partnership, the Referendum 71 vote, a total of 1.8 million votes cast with 955,000 YES and 845,000 NO.
In the 2008 Presidential Election, there were just over 3 million votes cast [Obama 58%, McCain 40%]
One could argue that that is good news, I certainly hope so. Good news because conservatives tend to vote in higher percentage in off-year elections, so, even in the off-year, the conservatives still did not win the Ref. 71 vote.
Chris S.
Uhhh…yeah. Not legal yet, the governor isn’t signing it until next week. Way to let your desire the be the “first on the scene” trump actual journalism and, I don’t know, facts.
bystander
Marriage Equality returns to both coasts!
the crustybastard
Funny how Barack Obama doesn’t have half the balls of Christine Gregoire.
Phantom
I’m not celebrating until July of 2012.