Vote yes on R-71 and support gay rights
The Daily Evergreen, October 8th, 2009
With Washington garnering national attention, the residents of this state can send a resounding message to the nation and take a gigantic leap for civil rights by voting for Referendum-71 on Election Day.
Even during off-election years, ballot measures gain little notoriety. However, R-71 is different. R-71 extends beyond the gay rights movement and into basic civil rights.
R-71 is the result of a lengthy, incremental approach taken by state legislators and progressive voters to increase gay rights. Despite the state’s ban on gay marriage, lawmakers have successfully passed domestic partnership laws that grant homosexual couples more rights, such as the right to visit their partner in the hospital. These rights have been expanded during the last two years, and last spring, Gov. Christine Gregoire signed SB 5688 into law, extending public-employee pensions, basic family legal rights and survivor benefits to homosexual couples. Before the ink was dry on the bill, gay-marriage opponents launched a petition to prevent the law from taking effect. Since then, R-71 has been mired in lawsuits and convoluted court rulings. It is now time for the residents of Washington to voice their opinion and affirm SB 5688, because now is always the time for asserting essential human rights.
The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act barred the federal government from recognizing homosexual unions and denied homosexual couples access to federal pensions, health insurance and other government benefits. Thankfully, states like Washington are laboratories for democracy. Since 1996, state legislators have enacted laws, and judges have issued court rulings permitting same-sex marriages in states including Maine, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut. For opponents of R-71 to move beyond their myopic views of marriage, a clear distinction must be drawn between a church’s recognition of marriage and the state’s recognition of marriage. The archaic definition of marriage that holds religious and legal implications must be abandoned. If marriage existed solely as a religious ceremony and a civil union (or domestic partnership) existed as the legal foundation for all couples, most gay-marriage opponents would be exposed for what they are: religious fundamentalists.
Civil rights advocates must reframe the issue as part of a larger movement to remove government from our bedrooms and religion from our government. R-71 will not infringe on heterosexual couples and will not diminish the role the family unit plays in society. When liberty conflicts with religious doctrines, liberty must always prevail.
In the eyes of the law, all couples – regardless of sexual orientation – who wish to enter into an union may do so. Preventing homosexual couples from enjoying the same rights as heterosexuals is a usurpation of their fundamental rights.
The issue at the heart of R-71 is not gay marriage, but basic civil rights. R-71 is about allowing Americans in a committed relationship to raise their family, run their business and live their lives free of religious tyranny.
