Domestic partnerships under attack
Related News
- 01/06/10 — Battle Over Marriage Equality in DC Moves to Court
- 12/03/09 — 2010 gay marriage vote unlikely in California
- 12/01/09 — One question divides same-sex marriage proponents: When?
- 11/10/09 — Rep. Yates proposes overturning Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban
- 11/03/09 — State’s voters opt for pragmatism
- More LGBT Equality news
The Oregonian: It's generally agreed that the two most liberal regions of the country are along the Northeast corridor and on the West Coast. But in recent years, the two areas have certainly diverged when it comes to gay marriage - and it may have something to do with the initiative system. Five of the six states (the other being Iowa) that have legalized gay marriage are in the Northeast, largely as a result of court decisions. The issue hasn't yet reached voters in any of those Northeastern states, where the initiative either doesn't exist or can be harder to use. On the West Coast, the California Supreme Court also legalized gay marriage at one point, but an initiative passed by voters last November overturned that. On Saturday, opponents of an expanded domestic partnership law in Washington state turned in what they say is enough signatures to force a public vote on that law. The law, scheduled to take effect on Sunday, was put on hold while the secretary of state verifies the signatures and it will remain in abeyance until the Nov. 3 election if the referendum qualifies. However, backers of the referendum need about 120,000 valid signatures and they turned in about 138,000 - short of the 150,000 the secretary of state's office recommended was necessary to assure a spot on the ballot. If the referendum does qualify, it will apparently be the first time that a state's voters will cast judgment on a domestic partnership or civil union law, separate from the issue of gay marriage. Chris Edelson, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, said that a domestic partnership law "probably does make a little stronger case to argue to voters" since it deals with the rights couples have instead of the more combustible issue of how to define marriage.
To read more, click here.
Comments
There are no comments for this entry.
