A North West View

With the nail biting election in the rear view mirror, with Obama winning the election handily once all the swing state cards feel into place, it is hard to believe that Obama's reelection is the cherry on the top of an amazing dessert.  It was a night that brought us the defeated of a proposed constructional ban of same sex marriage in Minnesota  with the public voting in favor of gay marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington, marking the first time in history that marriage equality has won at the ballot box.  Along with the the election of allies in congress and the senate, as well as in state government through out the country, and the first openly gay Senator Tammy Baldwin a Democratic from Wisconsin.  This is promises to be a watershed moment in history.

So many of you may have already heard that marriage equality in the great state of Washington, my home, is already under attack by the anti gay rights lobby, we have two legal fronts that they are trying to attack us from, one being threw the referendum process, for which not even 3 hours after marriage equality was signed into law they had submitted their referendum which is now officially Referendum 74, R 74/Ref 74 for short.  They have the 3 month period starting with the end of this legislative session, in other words until June 6th, to submit 120,557 valid signature (non duplicate, signatures voters registered to vote in the state of Washington) and of the initiative they have until July 6th to tun in  241,153 valid signatures as well.  but the Initiative has been in the works (it was filed back in January).