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Loading ...Wa. domestic partner expansion faces challenge
05.05.2009 7:54am EDT
(Olympia, Washington) Opponents of Washington state’s newly enacted domestic partner law that gives same-sex couples all of the state rights of marriage without the name have started their bid to overturn the measure.
The Washington Values Alliance filed paperwork Monday to begin the referendum process. They need to get more than 120,500 voter signatures by July 25 to qualify for the November ballot.The filing for the referendum delays the July 26 start of the law until the signatures are counted. If opponents qualify for the ballot, the law is delayed until the results of the November election.
Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign the “everything but marriage” bill into law within the next two weeks.
President Larry Stickney said the legislation is the final step toward legalizing gay marriage in Washington.
The legislation makes domestic partnerships equal to marriage in areas of community property, guardianship and powers of attorney. It allows partners the right to refuse to testify against partners in court. And it provides the same remedies as married couples in ending a relationship, including the division of property.
The legislation expands on previous domestic partnership laws by adding reference to partnerships alongside all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are mentioned.
The domestic partner law was enacted after the state Supreme Court in 2006 upheld Washington’s so-called Defense of Marriage Act limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
The court cited the argument that marriage was designed for the procreation of children. But the court noted the legislature could overturn the law or amend it to include gay pairs.
Since July 2007 when the original domestic partner law went into effect, more than 5,000 couples have registered as domestic partners.
Under the law, partners must be 18 or order and not already married or in a domestic relationship with someone else. The law also requires that couples share a home and be financially dependent up one another. It also allows opposite-sex couples to register if one partner is at least 62 years old.
From The Progress Report:
WHITE HOUSE ELIMINATED PLEDGE TO REPEAL DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT FROM WEBSITE: After The Progress Report and other outlets noted last week’s changes to the Civil Rights page on whitehouse.gov, watering down language on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Tips-Q noted that the website had also completely eliminated the portion objecting to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). As late as April 28, the website highlighted President Obama’s commitment to “repealing” DOMA, as a cached image shows. “Obama also believes that we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act,” read the website. Today, the website states only that Obama “supports full civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples and opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.” According to ProPublica’s Change Tracker, the changes to the DOMA language were made on April 30. During his campaign, Obama repeatedly pledged to seek to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, telling The Advocate, “I for a very long time have been interested in repeal of DOMA.” During the primary campaign, he touted his longtime opposition to DOMA in a strongly-worded “open letter” to the LGBT community.
The political right groups and the Churches cannot be trusted to deny Gays from having ANY rights. Both groups repeatedly state that they support Gay Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships but they just dont want Gays to have use of the traditional term of Marriage. Yet at every turn, they take efforts to deny not only Domestic partnerships but will work to deny us every right we have. We must demand our civil rights as provided by the Constitution and we must keep our voices heard by writing newspaper blogs, the President, your Congresspeople, whoever and whenver we can let our DEMAND be known.
What other group in America has such a hard fight for their most basic rights? We are at a critical point in America where we can no longer be silent on this issue. The majority of Americans want fairness to gays , so we must work dillegently in calling attention to the actions of primarily religious groups that although they have a right to their beliefs of their Church they need to contain those beliefs to their heart and their Church and cannot impose those beliefs on civil Government and the rights of gay, rights that are guaranteed by the US Constitution.
last keep the pressure on President Obama, while he is in office.
First of all, I think that Larry Stickney has a wide stance. Second, I also think it is important to know that Tim Eyman lead an effort for Referendum 65 back in 2006 that was to fight against making it illegal for discrimination in housing work and such. They didn’t collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Lets hope that Washington State’s citizens hold strong and don’t follow this idiot Stickney. Last, and probably most important – Mr. Mike Hebber Foward, your comment is outrageous. It is no help to our cause. Terrorism and violence has no place in our community.
Comment to Mike: Do not get involved in violence of any sort, this does irreparable damge to our gay rights effort. You are much more powerful when you state that your efforts are non-violent. NO VIOLENCE, it puts our efforts to vain and builds enemies of people who are currently on our side
I would love to start collecting signatures on a ballot initiative that would require the death of all homophobes! LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!
Do NOT be surprised to see the Mormon Church and the Knights of Columbus providing finacial support to the efforts of the Haters in Washington. The evangelicals will be out in force as well. NONE have any idea what Christ said were the two most important commandants. To do that would be a slap in their evil, bigoted faces.
I suppose it’s naive to wonder why they don’t just go away and leave us alone. I don’t interfere in the affairs of their churches … well, MUCH .
I HAVE been known to call Maledict the XVI a “flaming a$$hole on after-burner,” and I did get a chuckle over the mental image of Ted Haggard taking it doggy-style, but for the most part, I leave them alone.
Why can’t they do the same?
Even “Douche-Bag” Dobson admits the war is lost (with apologies to all upstanding douche-bags everywhere). He’s old; he’s tired; he’s going to his eternal reward SOON (please God!).
Poll after poll has indicated an ever-shrinking Rethugnantclone (sic) Party. UNLESS they dump the konservative kristianist krazies (KKK for short) they are headed for a permanent home in the swamps and bayous of the DEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
South.
This is ONE case where age and cunning will NOT overcome youth and enthusiasm.
Take the time and trouble to write to the bigots. If enough people do, they will at least see that their effort is doomed, even if the letters don’t change their minds. And it will cost them some staff time to read their e-mails .
WASHINGTON VALUES ALLIANCE
http://www.valuesaction.org/index.php?option=com_alfcontact&Itemid=2
My effort:
Gentlepersons:
DIVORCE is destroying heterosexual marriage, NOT same-sex couples.
Your “mission statement” is a snare, a delusion, and a bald-faced LIE, not to mention a contradiction.
I am a Christian priest; I SUPPORT same-sex marriage. So do many other Christians.
Raymond, CR+
Superior, retired
The Community of the Resurrection
San Diego CA USA
BLEND: Lurleen: “UPDATE: THIS IS HUGE. Pastor Joe Fuiten, former brother-in-arms with Larry & Oregon Gary, sent out an e-mail this morning quoting clergy and other hard-core anti-LGBTs on how craven this referendum effort is, and why it will fail. No wonder Larry refused to name the members of the “broad-based coalition” he claimed Monday to be working with – it doesn’t exist. Read Fuiten’s e-mail at the bottom of the post.”
“This is what happens when your carpetbagging, tax-evading leader apparently drops out in disgrace and you replace him with an understudy who openly lies about legislation and thinks it’s smart to advertise his campaign FAILURES on his resume.”
….a very poor performance.
Strike 1: Stickney, for whatever reason, tried to slink into the Secretary of State’s office and failed to take advantage of free advertising via the press. This is a guy who bellyaches that the press is ignoring him (4/2/09 email), although he rarely sends out press releases and actively maligns the press by calling them the “Seattle-based homosexual lobby and their left wing media allies & enablers (4/15/09 email)” that supposedly turn a blind eye to the “denigrat[ion of] the faith of hundreds of thousands of Christians (4/3/09 email)” while “the mainstream media continu[es] their near blackout on the homosexual-marriage issue (3/8/09 email).” Despite all this name-calling, Larry still gets lots of attention from important papers such as the Yakima Herald. The Everett HeraldNet has quoted him in 29 stories and even the Seattle Times, which is in what Larry calls “the Seattle red zone”, quotes him in 11 stories.
I would link you to the emails referenced above, but Larry is sloppy and hasn’t updated the e-mail alerts or much else on his website lately. Disorganization and poor follow-through plus his constant attack of the news media — I’m starting to guess why his other campaigns have been failures.
Strike 2: Stickney failed to make good on his promise of “a nice, tidy press release later this afternoon”. He lies about the press supposedly ignoring him, he lies about his own press release, and of course he lies that the referendum is somehow about marriage. Nothing like starting off your campaign by making your few remaining supporters want to slink away too.
Watch out for these petitioners because they lie to people to get them to sign the petitions. Undermine them at every turn and make sure they are not lying to people.
I understand that they cannot start gathering signatures until Gov. Gregoire signs the legislation, and then they have to gather 120,500+ by some time in July…hence, I wonder if Gregoire will delay signing until the last minute so as to reduce their signature-gathering window of opportunity?
Lovely, just as there are glimmers of hope the “values alliance” comes to crush them. I certainly hope that the names on the potion and any contributors to a campaign are made public! Seriously these people don’t have more important things to do (given the state of the economy) then come after our civil rights?
Yes do watch out of the petitioners, also if you see them petitioning in front of stores (especially chain stores etc) complain to the management and a lot of time they will be asked to leave (and if they don’t they will be trespassed, since from the street sidewalk in is private property) most business don’t want to anger customers by having political petitioners accost them to get them to sign things.
This group may be able to easily get enough signatures considering every church, temple, and every other place of worship is populated with narrow minded bigots who have turned their thinking process over to the bullshit artist that stands behind the pulpit. Remember what happened in California. It could very easily be repeated in Washington.
I read the Stickney website. I wonder what school this mentally challenged moron graduated from. The fact that pages and pages of absolute nonsense is available for everyone to read is scary. He is not able to factually support any of his ranting and raving. I suspect that he and his followers are all paying members of the “No Brains – No Headaches” organization. But, this kind of element is extremely dangersous. It would be nice if HRC would provide the print media with a position paper that counters all of the ridiculous positions that this idiot expounds upon – use the Harvey Milk methods: bury them in their own doo doo.