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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Make my year: vote to approve Referendum 74

Ballots are hitting mailboxes this week in Washington State. We have ours. (And when I say 'we' I'm speaking loosely: Kelley got hers, but I'm not a citizen so I can't vote.)

The local measure that concerns this household the most is, of course, a state referendum, Referendum Measure No. 74 which, if it passes, will make same-sex marriage legal here. Handily, it's in pride of place on the ballot: bang, right next to the little pictures showing you how to fill things in.

So we did. That is, Kelley did while I watched proudly:

I would like all voters in Washington State to vote to approve R-74. If the measure is approved, and I'm cautiously optimistic (very cautiously: it would be the very first time that marriage equality has been approved at the ballot box in this country), then Kelley and I could get legally married. It's possible that we'd wait until marriage equality applied on a federal level before we actually had the ceremony--but maybe we wouldn't wait. We'll wait and see.

Meanwhile, it's fascinating watching the last-ditch efforts of the opposition. Their TV ads say, basically: not approving of homosexuals getting married doesn't mean you don't like those poor, pitiful queer people. And their voter pamphlet blurb says: If R-74 is approved and gays can get married then "women can be 'husbands' and men can be 'wives'." This is not only arrant nonsense but outright fear-mongering--because, yes, there are some people for whom the notion of 'upsetting the natural order of things' is both bewildering and frightening.

There are a few other, minor voting issues that concern us--y'know, who's going to be President, and Governor, and whether or not the police should just leave stoners the fuck alone and spend their time going after wife-beaters and murderers--but this is the one I want everyone to pay attention to.

If you or your loved ones are eligible to vote in Washington State I urge you to vote today to approve R-74. We'd be making history. Plus, it would make my day, or possibly year, or perhaps life.
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