Support For Same Sex Marriage Grows In Washington

Amongst the gloom there is some bright news, here in Washington state support for Same Sex Marriage has grown by 5% in the last year since R71 was passed expanding Washington's "Domestic Partnership" laws to extend all the state rights responsibilities and protections of marriage just with out the name, those earning it the nick name the everything but marriage law.

In the poll of state voters, conducted by the University of Washington which consisted of 4 different questions, it found 37% believed that gay and lesbian couples should have access to legal recognition as long as its not marriage,(got to linked study for total breakdown, pg17 unless your interest in WA political polls for this fall) 19% say no recognition at all, but 41% say that we should have full marriage rights. Compare this to last year when 39% said we should have some form of legal recognition, (again go to link for brake down) 36 said they supported full marriage and 23% said they supported non at all.

Its not until you look at things in the more long run though that you start to realise just how much of a deal that this, when you look at the picture starting from 2006 when the case before the state supreme court attempting to overturn Washington's DOMA failed. at that time there were no protections in place for gay couples in the state and the numbers looked like this, 41% thought we should have some kind of legal recognition of our relationships, 30% said we should have full married and 26% said we should have non at all. The jump 5% jump in support between 2009 and 2010 is only tied with the 5% jump between 2006 and 2007. This as much as some may hate to admit it dose seem to show that the slow and steady approach to marriage dose work and dose have its abilities to help change minds and harts. It may not be as fast as some would like, goodness know it is not as fast as I would like but then again rights struggles really are, however we have goon from having only 30% of the public supporting our right to marry to 41% that is an 11% gain in 4 years.

The courant think is to now get the 23% that already support the existing all the same rights just not the name, to realise that with out the name we are excluded from the federal rights responsables and protections, as well as being able to truly credible in the eyes of the federal government fight for those rights. It is to help to nudge those 23% of votes over into the marriage camp, while not abandoning moving others up the ladder, after all it's easier to win you over in the campaign when you only a rung bellow instead of 3. hopefully we can make even larger leaps then this one as we focused on getting those who are already so close to supporting marriage equality to realize how much power that word actually carries.

I hope that this brought some sunshine to all of your day, as always thank you for reading. Comments are always welcome and very much enjoyed as well as appreciated. have a great day :-)

The Temptation Of The High

While being balanced mode wise is something that is good and something that I am glad to be, although I do wish that my medications made me feel less drained like I have been dragging a heavy weight around with me while I do things, in part because my mind seems to be sort of slow and just not totally with it at times leaving it to take a lot of energy to concentrate and get things done and that mental energy also has a physical manifestation as well, and is what tends to make me feel the most drained. while it is good to be balanced it is hard to not want to have a taste of the forbidden fruit that I have been brought down from having a minor taste of and that is to be on the more manic side of things. It is times like this when I know that the meds are keeping me from an amazing natural high, that it is so tempting just to stop taking my medications.

Mental Health Awareness

As some of you may or may not know May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and as such I thought I would write a blog post to try and help do my part to help raise awareness, and end the stigma of mental illness. I also hope to show provide some hope in the process. As many of you already know I have a mental illness, and that is Bipolar Disorder, which I was diagnosed with only relatively recently, about a year ago, although I have had it for a nice chunk of my life. It is something that while I am still just in the beginning stages of starting to understand and control, I don't feel that it is something that I should have to be ashamed of or have to worry about others finding out about it. unfortunately though there is quite a large amount of stigma that surrounds mental illness especially "serious mental illness", which they are for those that suffer from them (and those close to them as well) unfortunately though it also makes it sound scarier t...

The Attacks Start At the Last Minute

With only a week left until ballots mail out in Washington state, Protect Marriage Washington has started airing their first ad in what is doubtless to be a series of ads to run threw the election on Nov 6. as the Seattle times says about this time in the election cycle "for a ballot measure that isn't up on the air now is missing a big opportunity. Ballots mail out next week" and it appears that even though they are late to the race compared to the Approve campaign that has had ads running for months between Washington United for marriage and an ad run by Seattle Pride during the summer Olympics they seem to be coming out of the gate swinging using some of the same old tactics that have proven so effective in the past in scaring the public into voting their way. although this time they seem to have thrown in another tool to their approach ...

A North West View

Search This Blog