Not only do our friends in Washington get to throw wicked CostCo parking lot liquor parties, they get to vote as a state on same-sex marriage before we do.
The Washington legislature legalized same-sex marriage a few months ago, after Governor Chris Gregoire really sweetly came out about her change of heart on the issue. This morning, as expected, opponents of same-sex marriage filed 200,000 signatures to refer the law to the ballot. That means all same-sex marriages will be put on hold until November, when votes will have to decide whether to approve or reject the new law.
This anti-gay signature turn-in happens to occur on the same day that polls show Americans supporting same-sex marriage are now a majority.
Recent polling (pdf) on gay marriage in Washington shows that voters would support LGBT marriage rights by a margin of four percent. A negative campaign against the law, though, could eat into the support and shift the needle to the right. We’ll see. Oh, we’ll see.
You may remember that Oregon was hoping to be the first state to have its voters approve gay marriage, but disappointing poll results persuaded LGBT advocates’ to campaign for same-sex marriage statewide potentially in 2014, instead.
Didn’t we get a chance in 2004?
hey sarah, how long have you lived here? Oregon did it first, but they did it wrong, except for benton and multnomah county.
@1: We didn’t get a chance in 2004. In ’04, we were voting whether or not to ban it. In WA, they’re voting whether or not to uphold marriage equality as passed by the legislature. Opposite situation.
“… shows that voters would support LGBT marriage rights …”
I don’t think the public will ever support bi-sexuals marrying both sexes.
@3 wrong, people were issued marriage licenses and were married in the state, the ban undid those marriages.