The Yes-on-8 and Yes-on-1 campaigns, and the likes of Rick Warren, have always tried to claim that they don't hate teh Gays, they just want to "preserve the sanctity of marriage" or somesuch BS. They claim that it's not about two people loving each other in the privacy of their own homes, it's about the definition of a word that has religious significance.
Well, we never believed them. It never made sense, religious marriage is not the same thing as legal marriage, and everyone knows that.
I'm not from Washington State, so I had no idea about what's going on over there until I opened my email a couple of minutes ago to find a screed from EQCA. Follow me over the fold to see how the homophobes have blown their cover...
From EQCA's email [emphasis theirs]:
In three weeks, Washington State will vote on whether or not to keep their domestic partnership law. Social conservatives opposed to domestic partnerships for same-sex couples filed Referendum 71 to try to repeal the law that recognizes domestic partnerships. The referendum was certified on Sept. 2, and ballots will be sent to voters by Oct. 16.
Although voters in Washington have a history of supporting equality, this is an off-year election with more conservative, older voters. Recent polling shows that if the election were held today, only 51% of the likely voters in November would vote to approve the law. Most people don’t even know yet that Washington’s domestic partnership rights are threatened with repeal. They also don’t know they will need to vote ‘approve’ to keep domestic partnerships legal.
There are only a few weeks to reach more than a million voters to ask them to vote to approve Referendum 71, in this low-turnout election.
This clearly has nothing to do with saving marriage. Domestic partnerships don't impinge on any religious definition. This is, pure and simple, about hating on gays. It's about putting them back in "their place" as second-class citizens. It's about singling them out for a denial even of simple recognition, let alone actual equality.
And yet opponents of domestic partnerships have succeeded in subjecting the law to a ballot test. The State GOP Chairman opposes Ref. 71, claiming absurdly that it would "mandate gay marriage". Huh? Orientation-neutral domestic partnerships are going to force straight men to marry other men? What?!!
For this race, "Yes" is the vote we want, re-affirming domestic partnerships. This is the opposite of Prop 8 in California or Prop 1 in Maine. There's no room for complacency.
Don't let the haters win. Spread the word. Donate.