Attacking domestic partnerships in WA

In Washington they have passed a sweeping domestic partnership bill for same sex couples. Notice that this does NOT include the word marriage, which was supposed to be the main concern of the conservative side. After all, that's all Prop8 did: take away the word "marriage" from gay couples who were not fortunate enough to marry before election day.

As we've seen before, this is not true.

There is an attempt to get a referendum on the ballot in Washington to rescind the DP law. The LA Times quotes a leader of the movement,

"It's the last incremental step to gay marriage for gay activists," said Gary Randall, president of the Faith & Freedom Network, who is helping coordinate the signature campaign. "We're not trying to take anything from anyone. We're simply trying to defend and keep marriage as it has always been throughout all of human history."

Did you catch that? "WE're not trying to take anything from anyone". Well, what do they call it, when they want gay families to have no legal protections and our children to be at risk? It's really breathtaking.

Fortunately

An October poll by the University of Washington's Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality showed that 21% of those surveyed said there should be no legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples. But 37% supported same-sex marriage, and another 29% said same-sex couples should have the same legal rights as heterosexuals -- adding up to a 66% majority.

Because a majority believes our families should have at least some protections.

In California, the wingers are planning to challenge domestic partnerships as well as the marriages of the 18,000 couples joined together before the election.

This fight against the referendum, and the threatened attacks in California, like previous fights in Utah and elsewhere, shows that it's not about "marriage" as a word, or as a concept. It's about bigotry, pure and simple.