Referendum 74 approved! Washington has Marriage Equality!

Washington United for Marriage (WUM) campaign manager Zach Silk declares victory:

After crunching numbers throughout the night, Washington United for Marriage (WUM), the broad coalition which built an historic statewide campaign, from a record-setting donor base to an unprecedented GOTV effort, all to defend the freedom to marry, today announced that Referendum 74 will be approved by voters. 

“This is a clear win,” said WUM campaign manager Zach Silk. “We have run the numbers every which way, and we can now confidently say that we have won. This is an historic day for Washington, an historic day for our country and, most of all, for families across the state who have dreamed of this day and the wedding celebrations to come.”
With 60 percent of the vote counted, R74 already has the support of 65% of King County and is performing well in key Eastern Washington counties. Simply put, it’s now impossible for opponents to overcome the 52-48% spread for R74. 

WUM built on a broad legislative effort that led to passage of the bipartisan marriage law in February. Nonetheless, essentially starting from scratch in June, the campaign built a $12.3 war chest with over 27,000 donors, 80% of whom hailed from the Evergreen State. The most common donation? Twenty-five-dollars, given over and over again. 

Ten-thousand, three-hour volunteer shifts for a total of 30,000 hours in direct voter outreach. Just in the last week, 100,000 doors were knocked and nearly 200,000 phone calls were logged on Monday and Tuesday. 

“We made history in so many ways,” said Silk. “Our volunteers were engaged, fired up and delivered. There has never been a ballot campaign in Washington that had this kind of breath and depth, from field to fundraising. We have much to celebrate and much to be proud of. With so much at stake, we challenged ourselves to do big things, and it made all the difference.”

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In Washington: State Officials releases Referendum 71 Petition Names

Oooh, it's about to get jazzy up in here! Washington state official decided to release of the 138 K signatures for Referendum 71, an anti-gay marriage petition, for the whole world to see:

State officials are releasing copies of petitions that forced a vote on a 2009 domestic partnership law.

The Washington State Archives provided a DVD to The Associated Press on Monday showing the 138,000 signatures for Referendum 71. The disclosure came just a few hours after a federal judge ruled that the signers are unlikely to face harassment.

Opponents of the law that expanded gay partnership rights managed to get enough signatures in 2009 to force a vote on the issue. They had pushed in court to keep the names of petition supporters private, arguing that it was a contentious issue and that people could be threatened.
An attorney for the group plans to appeal the decision.

This will be interesting. I'll keep you posted on the fallout.

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Peek A Boo, I See your Anti-Gay ass now, boo!

Today the Supreme Court ruled that the names of the folks who signed Referendum 71 in Washington will be made public.

Seattle P.I. reports:

Justices ruled in a case called Doe V. Reed. They heard oral arguments in Washington, D.C., April 28.

The conservative group that tried to block release of the signatures wanted the nation's high court to uphold a lower court ruling that said signing petitions and referendum is constitutionally protected political speech - which by law is OK to engage in anonymously.

The group, Protect Marriage Washington, asked justices to shield the names of the 138,000 people who signed Referendum 71 petitions in hopes of overturning the "everything but marriage" same-sex domestic partner law. In November Washington voters upheld the new statute. Gay rights groups have said they'll post the petition signers' names online, and some fear harassment or threats if their names are revealed.

State officials had said there are laws in place to protect people who might be threatened.

See, you can't hate and hide.

R-71 is approved!

R-71 is real and active!

Washington state voters have approved Referendum 71, keeping a law that expands state benefits for registered same-sex and some senior domestic partners.

The tally Thursday afternoon saw the vote to approve R-71 widening its lead 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent.

That lead now appears insurmountable. The Secretary of State's Office estimates another 500,000 to 600,000 ballots statewide are still outstanding, with about half expected from King County, where the measure is being approved by slightly more than 2 to 1.

"Voters across the state listened to the personal stories of lesbian and gay families and the challenges they faced and sent a strong message that we want to see all families treated equally under the law in our state," said Anne Levinson, chairwoman of Washington Families Standing Together, which worked for the measure's approval.

Yes!!

Get Out and Vote!

Maine, Washington, Mich, New York, Ohio, D.C., New Jersey and other states need help! If you are there, Vote!


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New Drama over Ref-71

Good Grief, what's really going on in Washington State?

Because of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's meddling, gay haters can still keep their names hidden from public view. The names were blocked yesterday and will remain so until the Supreme Court receive an appeal from the Ref- 71 sponsors.

These folks claimed that if their names were released, they are subject to harassment and threats.

I hope we can get this lifted, the truth must told and names must be published.

Don't hide, haters! Stand up for your rights, since you are trying to hate on ours.

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Communities of Color are coming to Help in Washington

These organizations of color are supporting the expansion of domestic-partnership law in Washington.

Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
El Centro de la Raza
Asian and Pacific Islanders Coalition of King County
Northwest Indian Bar Association
Minority Executive Directors Coalition of King County
Seattle-King County NAACP
Middle Eastern Legal Association of Washington
Entre Hermanos
Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Seattle
Latino Political Action Committee of Washington
Japanese American Citizens League
Community 2 Community Development
Loren Miller Bar Association
Filipino Lawyers of Washington
Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
Asian Pacific Directions Coalition
Asian and Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center
Vietnamese Bar Association of Washington
Sea Mar Community Health Clinics
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Raising Our Asian Pacific American Representation
OneAmerica
South Asian Bar Association of Washington
Korean American Bar Association of Washington
Latina/o Bar Association of Washington
Pinay sa Seattle
Sahngnoksoo
New Americans Action Fund
CASA Latina
Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition of Pierce County


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Now, we will know the folks behind Ref 71

Here we go!

A federal appeals court today reversed a lower court decision by granting the Washington Secretary of State permission to release the names and addresses of Referendum 71 petitioners. Those seeking to repeal Washington State’s domestic partnershp law are opposed to the names being released in fear of “harrassment” from pro-gay supporters.

So, we will not only learn who signed this mess, but if these are the folks behind the signatures. There were reports of fraud and foolishness in this petition. Now, we may learn the truth.

Thanks to NG for the heads up.

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Good News, Bad News: R-71

Bad News:R-71 may have enough signatures to bring gay marriage to a vote Washington.

Good News: Families Standing Together filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to keep the referendum off the ballot.

Washington Families Standing Together says the secretary of state has not complied with the law in processing R-71. Signature gatherers are supposed to sign declarations saying that signatures they've collected are valid to the best of their knowledge and that they personally circulated the petition, the lawsuit says. Attorney David Burman said there were petitions with 2,058 signatures in which there was no name and no signature from the person collecting them.

The plaintiffs in the case also say the secretary of state was ignoring requirements that say only registered voters can sign petitions. The lawsuit says that on Aug. 17 Secretary of State Sam Reed told his staff to ignore the date in voter files as the voter registration date and accept signatures from people who were not cleared to vote when they signed.

"If the secretary of state had followed what we believe was the correct legal advice this referendum would not have qualified," Burman told the judge.

A decision will be issued Wednesday.

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You want Referendum 71 on the ballot? Fine, we will also have your names Posted Publicly!

They thought they could have it all.

Protect Marriage Washington wanted to keep the names of their haters a secret, but the Public Disclosure Commission said "oh no, joe" and reminded them that their names will be made public.

I mean, if you going to make a big deal and bring forth Referendum 71, we should know who you are, right?

Hey, like I said before... Stand by your word, cretins!

You can hate, but you can't hide.

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Maine's “Together” Debuts

Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the Equality Maine Foundation and the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation have sponsored an ad that shows LGBT families in a very positive light.

What's This? R-71 could Fail?

Well, I knew something was rotten in the state of Washington.

So far the signatures R-71, the referendum to overturn Wash. same-sex domestic partnership law, already has a high error rate. The secretary of state's office said they had checked another 6,140 signatures for Referendum 71, and rejected 14.2 percent of it.

That doesn't look good for the haters, however I hope this start a conversation about the how these type of petitions and validity of the signatures.

It's very interesting to see God's chosen act as the Devil's gang.


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Washington Judge Protects the Names of the Haters... For Now

In the continuing battle of gay marriages and rights, the Haters in Washington somehow gathered enough signatures (Referendum 71) to repeal the state's new domestic partners law.

So with that in mind, LGBT supporters said alright, but we will make the names public so we all can see the foolishness, but U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle granted a temporary restraining order to hold the releasing the Haters' names.

Judge Settle cited that absence in his written order, and also gave what appears to be a nod to the strength of the referendum backers' case, writing that they "have sufficiently demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits" of their First Amendment claim, and "a reasonable likelihood of irreparable harm if the names are released."

Larry Stickney, campaign manager with Protect Marriage Washington, called the judge's decision a good outcome. He and the group's attorney, Stephen Pidgeon, high-fived one another in the courtroom as they read the written order.

"We think it's good news," Stickney said.

A consortium of religious conservative organizations, Protect Marriage Washington on Saturday submitted 138,500 signatures to the secretary of state seeking to force Referendum 71 onto the November ballot.

At least 120,577 of the signatures must be valid for the referendum to qualify.

Tom Lang, director of knowthyneighbor.org, which plans to post the names on that Web site, said he was intensely disappointed Washington failed to defend its own public disclosure law in court.

I am disappointed too, Tom. Hopefully, you will release those names and put those fools on blast. However, we may not have to worry, the signatures maybe be invalid anyways.

fingers crossed