A North West View

One of the newest groups to throw their support behind marriage equality in Washington state and take an official stance that Ref 74 should be a proved is the Seattle Chamber Of Commerce which represents 2,200 company's, it joins the ranks of company's like Microsoft and Starbucks, as well as many faith groups and Labor groups like my union UFCW 21, in voicing their support for the right of all citizens of Washington to be able to marry.   Of course being the chamber of commerce their reason boils down to the economics of it, in that it creates a simpler system of providing benefits to employees who have same sex partners, as well as helping to make it easier to attract and keep talent, especially when competing with other states (and countries) that have marriage equality. In addition to gaining another voice for equality Washington...

Well on Tuesday the backers of Initiative 1192 other wise know as I 1192 conceded that they did not and would not have enough signatures by the deadline of July 6th to make it onto the November ballot.  The backer of the  241,000     which would have changed state law to once again read that marriage is between one man and one women.  The backer of the measure S tephen Pidgeon, who is also a candidate for the state attorney generals office, (How unseemly) blamed the inability to collect enough signatures on the backers of Ref 74, and went so far as to say that the backers of Ref 74 chorused signature gathers to sabotage his Initiative campaign!  What this means though is that there is only one fight to be fought now on the November ballot and that is Ref 74.  Of-course like everything in this fight this is both good new and also some bad news at the sa...

The dead line for the opponents of marriage equality are nearing the deadline for them to turn all the signatures they have gathered to try and get Referendum 74 on the ballot in November, according to "Preserve Marriage Washington" (one of the most perverse name for a group that wants to take the basic human right of marriage away from people) they have enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot.  As of Wednesday they claimed to have over 150,00 signatures which is am amount that the Secretary of States Office recommends to insure a buffer for invalid and duplicate signatures in order to meet the legal requirement of 120,557 valed signatures.  They are cutting it close with Tuesday being June 5th and the deadline being Jun 6th, but if what they say is true, then sort of them having a much higher then average rate of non valid signatures, their me...

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).

So I just got back from my trip to see the showing of A Right To Love: An American  Dream, I want to do a quick review, although one that dose not really give anything away about the film. That and I want to share about the trip as well and throw my own commentary in behind some current events that I have not had the time to write about ether because I was busy preparing to take my trip of I was on the trip.

Well we are just one vote away from marriage equality in Washington, with the announcement by state Senator Jim Kastama of his support of the legislation, that leaves us with 24 of the 25 votes needed to pass SB6239.  Not only are we now one vote away but today Microsoft officially came out in support of the bill as well, and posted a very well written  persuasive and eloquent (for a corperate blog) expression of support.  Which as has been mention in a previous post has been a key in garnishing the final needed votes to pass equality legislation.   Of course still being one vote away success can not be taken for granted simply for the fact that until that one vote is locked in the line could come down one vote short for us too, but there is much reason to be optimistic and bask in this little victory.

Only 2 yes votes are needed in the Washington state Senate for the marriage equality legislation that was introduced this week with 23 signatures to pass.  The senate is the key roadblock to the passage of the legislation as identical legislation was introduced into the State House, with 50 signatures which is enough votes to pass the legislation in the House. Things are so close yet still so far away, there is still a small pool of officially undecided/committed senators that could swing the vote into our favor, those senators are Senator Andy Hill, R-Redmond; Senator Joe Fain, R-Auburn; Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island; Senator Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup; Senator Paull Shin, D-Edmonds  and Senator Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond.  Then there is Senator Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale.  These are the people that we have to try to sway into our favor.

So as promised another update on the progress of the possible legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington state by the state legislature. There is no really question that the state house will vote in favor of the bill to legalise same-sex marriage as it has passed similar legislation in the past, not to mention that it is made up of 55 democratically held seats and 42 republican held seats (and one currently empty seat) the current sticking point is the state Senate which is comprised of 27 democrats and 22 republicans.

In light of the amazing news that Governor Chris Gregoire is not only supporting legislation for the legalization of same sex marriage in my state of Washington, but that she will actually be introducing the legislation to the legislature some time this week, after it starts it's new legislative session on Monday.  (legislation that she and legislative leaders have been working on) I have decided to write to my law makers and I thought that I would share what I have written with all of you. I spent the time to type out what I wanted to say so that when I hand write it, (I am becoming of the firm opinion that a handwritten letter crays so much more weight and power with it then say an email)  it will be the best that I can be.

With the ballots going in the mail in just five days I am still on the fence when it comes to initiative 1098 which would institute an state income tax in washington state, which is something of course the state has not had.  As it is writing now is would only effect those making individually 200,00 or more a year and couples making 400,00 with a five percent income tax and individuals making 500,000 or more and couples making 1,000,000 or more a year with an nine percent income tax, of which the majority would go to public education and health care.  Both of which are wildly important services,  it would also reduce the state portion of property taxes by 20% exempt many small business and lower B&O taxes on business.  Both sides how ever seem to have good points, about why it should and should not be passed.

It was just about unanimous with all the justices except for Justice Clarance Thomas objecting to the courts decision to uphold Washington's public disclosure laws, and ruling that the signatures on the petitions for Ref 71 can be released.  They how ever are not being released at the moment because Protect Marriage Washington, the group that got R71 on the ballot back in 09 has a case to be heard in a lower court to get the release of the names prevented.  This is allowed as the case they brought before the supreme court was a challenge to conditionality of the States disclosure law that required disclosure of the names when requested, unless a court order prevented it. The court found, with Justice John Roberts Jr. writing the ruling, that Washington's disclosure law, which only effects disclosing names of those that singed, dose not violate the first amendment.  They of course left open as currently is the possibility for groups to seek action to prevent and sto...

After just finishing reading threw the 61 page transcript of the Supreme Court proceedings and I would say if you have the time that it is definitely not as dry as one would imagine it to be, however you do get the since that the press coverage is very on the ball when they say that the justices are not thrilled at all by the legal argument of Mr. James Bopp Jr the lawyer representing Protect Marriage Washington in this case.   It becomes quite clear that 7 of the justices well since they are also the only ones talking  are really not inclined to Mr Bopp's arguments with  Justice Anthony Scalia jumping him right off the bat hardly one sentence into his opening statement. Mr Bopp comes off as spending much of his time on the defensive trying to fend of constant grilling and interrogation from the justices as they poke and produce holes and gapes into his case, in the case of justice Scalia done quite often with over exuberance. 

The US Supreme Court is scheduled to start oral arguments on April 28th over the release of the names of  those that signed Referendum 71, which was the failed bid in 2009 to try to over turn WA new "every thing but marriage" domestic partnership laws at the time.   The case which concerns the release into public record, as prescribed by washington state discolor law, of 138,000 names of those who signed the potion in order to get it onto the ballot.  As noted washington state law requires that the names of those who sign potions be released into public record where they are free for any one to access, and this has been the law for the last 40 yeas since it was instituted threw a voter approved initiative itself.

A quick kudos to the state Senate who unanimously(48-0) passed an anti LGBT bullying bill yesterday (after it unanimously passed the house too! 97-0) sending it to Governor Christen Gregoire desk who no surprise has vowed to sign it into law. Sorry that its not a long post today, things are not doing swimmingly for me, my moods really are crashing about quite a lot lately, especially recently i had really wanted to talk about online dating in this post but I am so amped up that I can't seem to keep my mind on track long enough to actually write anything intelligible.  I will save that subject for tommarow. (hopefully I will be able to find a time to site down and write when things are more or less not falling off the tracks) As always thank you for reading and fallowing my posts, comments and feed back are always welcome and apretiated.