Effort To Ban Gay Unions Falling Short In Wash. State

The effort to place a gay-inclusive domestic partnership law up for a vote in Washington State appears to be falling short.

With a looming deadline of Saturday at 2PM, opponents of the law dubbed by the media as the “everything but marriage law” have only 4 full days left to gather thousands of valid signatures.

Opponents – a coalition of mostly religious groups – announced their attempt to repeal the bill in November, even before it became law in May. Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, says his group filed Referendum 71 because the law is too close to marriage and violates the law.

“The bill … elevates homosexual relationships to that of traditional marriage, thus eliminating any legal difference between domestic partnerships and marriage,” Randall wrote in a blog entry posted on the group’s website before the bill became law.

“I do not believe a majority [of] Washingtonians believe in homosexual marriage, nor do they want to become a national attraction for homosexuals from other states and countries,” he added.

Organizers, however, admit that they have fallen desperately behind in collecting the 120,577 valid signatures needed to qualify the measure. Randall told the conservative group Concerned Women for America that only 75,000 signatures had been collected as of Friday. Leaving the group at least 45,577 signatures short. But in order to ensure there are sufficient valid signatures, the group estimates it needs to collect 75,000 signatures. In other words, opponents need to collect as many signatures in one week as they did in the previous seven to eight weeks.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill in April along a mostly party-line vote of 62 to 35. Senators approved the bill in March with a 30 to 18 vote, and Governor Chris Gregoire signed the bill into law on May 18. See Effort To Ban Gay Unions Falling Short In Wash. State

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LGBT discussion takes on a new tone in the Ohio Statehouse

Columbus–As the House State Government committee considered a bill to outlaw discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity, State Rep. Cliff Hite of Findlay challenged Crystal Curry of the anti-gay Concerned Women for America.

“You and the other [Equal Housing and Employment Act opponents] have testified that homosexuals are only about three percent of the population,” said Hite, a Republican. “So how is it that three percent represents such a threat?”

“They’re not,” Curry answered, “unless we give them civil rights and allow them to marry. Then they are a threat. Three percent is not harmful unless they keep pushing and pushing and take on rights.”

Curry then told lawmakers that because LGBT people use the word “gay” instead of “homosexual” and Will and Grace has gay characters, homosexuality will “become accepted.”

“Kids will grow up and try it,” she complained.

The exchange caused a visible reaction in Hite and other committee members, both Democrats and Republicans.

This illustrates what might be the most significant development in the bill’s movement through the Ohio legislature:

The measure’s opponents can no longer make wild, unsubstantiated and long-debunked claims about the lives of LGBT people without challenges from both sides of the partisan aisle.

See LGBT discussion takes on a new tone in the Ohio Statehouse

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Conservative Groups Launch Preemptive Efforts To Retain Gay Bans

Anti-gay rights groups alarmed at the election of a gay-affirming president are staging preemptive attacks on the pro-gay positions of the upcoming Barack Obama administration.

One such group, the Alliance for Marriage Foundation (AMF), the organization that drafted the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) in Congress, is working against any attempt to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The conservative group Concerned Women for America (CWA) objects to several progressive Obama ideologies at Obama Watch, but four out of six of their concerns are gay related.

Both groups list defending DOMA from repeal as a priority.

At the AMF sponsored website www.ProtectDOMA.org facts and information about the law that forbids any federal agency from recognizing legal marriage can be found. The law also allows states to ignore legal gay marriages performed in another state.

See Conservative Groups Launch Preemptive Efforts To Retain Gay Bans
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