We have yet another front to defend in the fight to secure equality for LGBT families this fall. In Washington State, Referendum 71 looks like it will qualify for the ballot with just over the 120,000 signatures needed. The final certification will come Wednesday in a court case filed by our side challenging it, but it appears all but certain at this point that it's going to the ballot, according to the Secretary of State. The measure would overturn a major expansion of LGBT partnership rights passed in the legislature and signed by Gov. Gregoire, including:
- The right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner
- The right to wages and benefits when a domestic partner is injured, and to unpaid wages upon the death of a domestic partner
- The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits
- The right to workers' compensation coverage
- Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after the death of a domestic partner, conversion rights and continuing coverage rights
- Rights related to adoption, child custody and child support
Essentially, a major part of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The good news is that the campaign will be fought hard. Josh Friedes, a friend who just left Equal Rights Washington, the organization in large part responsible for Washington State's comprehensive domestic partnership laws (which provide all the rights and benefits of marriage under state law), is managing it. And my good friend Josh Cohen, who did a lot of volunteer work around Prop 8 and general all-around tech guru, is helping with new media for the campaign. Josh C., in his capacity working at Microsoft, worked hard to help me set up a great event there for The Progressive Revolution book tour when Mike went to Seattle a few months ago. Both Joshes came to Netroots Nation two weeks ago to reach out and ask for help, and ask what they could do for us, too. They both get it, and need a hand now.
The bad news is that this will be less than a nine-week campaign- Washington State is vote by mail, so ballots start coming in during mid-October. Although you could argue the other side has the same problem, our side needs to vote yes on Referendum 71, in an electoral quirk, in order to approve the rights. Because "yes" efforts are always harder to win on ballot campaigns, we face an uphill challenge. I also have concerns the public will be willing to approve new rights with opposition likely messaging about added costs to businesses in a recession.
The first step to any campaign you want to support is to help give them the capacity to win. Washington Families Standing Together is the organization on our side working to defeat this attack on LGBT families. Please sign up for their e-mail list here, and ask several friends you know to do the same. If you are able, contribute to get them seed money. There are some legal hoops they need to jump through still to be on ActBlue. Josh F. tells me Washington State has a large donor ban that bans any $5,000 contributions or more at the 21-day mark before the election, so there will not be any last-minute Melissa Ethridge fundraising concerts here where all the big donors wake up like during Prop 8. They need help as early as possible.
Their Facebook fan page with over 7,500 members is here.
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