After the soul wrenching loss in Maine on Tuesday, it looks like Washington State may yet proved wrong the axiom that gays cannot win at the ballot box to secure civil rights. More absentee ballots remain to be counted, but projections are that Referendum 71 will pass and that full domestic partnership rights for same sex couples. The lastest figures show the measure being approved by a margin of 52% to 48%. Based on the returns to date from King County - i.e., Seattle - running 2 to 1 for approval and the approval of the measure in most counties, in fact, it is believed that there are insufficient uncounted ballots to swing the result the other way. If approved, Washington State same sex couples will have all the rights of marriage save the name. I was impressed with the progressiveness of the Seattle area a few years back when I visited it with my son and I can appreciate why, after being back in Virginia for a few months, my son decided to move back to Washington State a couple weeks ago. Washington State is the future while Virginia represents a bigoted past. Here are some highlights from a op-ed in the Seattle Times:*
Gays can't win at the ballot box. That has always been the harsh reality. Put the subject of equality for gays and lesbians to a vote of the people — practically any people, in states from deep red to dark blue — and the people have always said: "No. Not here. Not yet." Until — it appears — now. Right here.
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There's a week's worth of ballot-counting remaining in an election everyone is saying is too-close-to-call. But it appears Washington state will be the first in America to approve a gay-equality measure not by court fiat or legislative action, but by the direct will of the people. It's never happened before. If the slim lead holds for the gay-partnership law Referendum 71, it would be a landmark. Huge. Not because the law that was on the ballot Tuesday is the last word in this debate. But because the vote signals, finally, a tipping point of sorts — a bellwether of public acceptance — that has eluded gays and lesbians forever.
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When it comes to gay acceptance, that shift has now happened. That's the big story of Election 2009. And it's going to keep inching like that, a mostly one-way tide. Toward equality.
Gays can't win at the ballot box. That has always been the harsh reality. Put the subject of equality for gays and lesbians to a vote of the people — practically any people, in states from deep red to dark blue — and the people have always said: "No. Not here. Not yet." Until — it appears — now. Right here.
*
There's a week's worth of ballot-counting remaining in an election everyone is saying is too-close-to-call. But it appears Washington state will be the first in America to approve a gay-equality measure not by court fiat or legislative action, but by the direct will of the people. It's never happened before. If the slim lead holds for the gay-partnership law Referendum 71, it would be a landmark. Huge. Not because the law that was on the ballot Tuesday is the last word in this debate. But because the vote signals, finally, a tipping point of sorts — a bellwether of public acceptance — that has eluded gays and lesbians forever.
*
When it comes to gay acceptance, that shift has now happened. That's the big story of Election 2009. And it's going to keep inching like that, a mostly one-way tide. Toward equality.
*
It's no wonder that the "creative class" that drives technology and inovation is migrating to states like Washington State and leaving backward states like Virginia where freedom of religion and equal civil legal rights for all are merely myths. In Virginia, hate and bigotry remain ascendant.
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