WA: Referendum 74 On Marriage Equality Is Set

It's on like donkey kong! The heterosexual supremacists in Washington State submitted 240,000 signatures earlier this week to place Washington's marriage equality law on hold until after the November 2012 vote on Referendum 74.

Washington United for Marriage responded to the signature submission:

 “For us, there’s no news here.  We always knew our opponents would qualify for the ballot, and we know they paid hired canvassers to boost their count.  They can spin it however they want, but they clearly wouldn’t have paid out-of-pocket if they thought they could do it on their own.

“Whatever the final certified number is, it doesn’t matter.  This campaign is up and running and we know by independent poll numbers released last week that the overwhelming majority of Washingtonians do not want to overturn this law of fundamental fairness for all families.

“That’s why we’ll continue to build on the broad and diverse campaign we’ve created.  We are energized by the families who know that only marriage fully protects their children, by the parents who want all of their children to be able to marry the person they love, and by loving gay and lesbian couples who simply want to make that lifetime commitment to one another. Those are the values of the vast majority of people in this state and that’s why we believe we’ll ultimately win in November.”

This basically makes it certain that in four states this fall there will be campaigns and public votes on marriage equality, with three of those votes ending up in legalizing civil marriages of same-sex couples if the electorate supports the equality position. The four states are Maine, Washington, Maryland and Minnesota with Minnesota's vote on adding a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality (similar to California's Proposition 8) in a state which already has a state law banning the practice. Happily, the latest poll shows that Minnesota's ban is likely to fail.

In fact, in all 4 states support for marriage equality is increasing and is almost above 50% outside the margin of error of recent polls. (Maine is at 54%-41% as of March 2012, Maryland is at 57%-37% as of May 2012 and Washington is at 54%-33% as of May 2012.)