The LGBT Battle in Seattle

 

A sign asking voters to approve Referendum 71 in Washington state. (Fickr/dreamsjung)

Editor’s note: After this piece ran, Washington voted and passed Referendum 71 with just over 51 percent of the vote, confirming that domestic partnership rights are legal in their state.

When a group of young progressives at the University of Washington gathered to vote on their priorities this year, LGBT rights came in at the top of the list. This Election Day, in what is generally considered an "off year" for elections since almost no federal candidates are up for election in odd years, the progressives at UW will get a chance to see how effective their organizing on LGBT issues has been.

Today residents in Washington state will vote on Referendum 71 (R-71), a measure that will either approve or reject a state law that allows for same-sex couples and domestic partners to be provided with the same legal rights as those given to married couples. R-71 is just one of the three measures that will determine whether LGBT individuals will maintain the right to domestic partnerships. Similar measures are at the center of state politics in both Maine and Kalamazoo, Michigan, today. The No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign is working to protect Maine’s recently-passed law legalizing marriage equality for same-sex couples. In Kalamazoo, residents will vote on the City Commission of Kalamazoo’s twice approved ordinance for housing, employment, and public accommodation protections for gay and transgender residents.

Introduced by a citizen’s campaign through the Washington Values Alliance, R-71 is a veto referendum to the domestic partnership law known as S.B. 5688, which was passed this year by the Washington state legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire this May. Since it is a ballot initiative, the referendum still needs the approval of a majority of voters in Washington state to confirm this bill as law. The Protect Marriage in Washington group (which runs the campaign Reject R-71) and other opponents of the state law are campaigning to reject the referendum, so that domestic partnership rights are not expanded to include same-sex couples. A vote to approve the referendum would confirm domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples in Washington state. The most recent polling on R-71 shows that 53 percent voters approve of the measure.

Those who plan to approve R-71 see the law as a basic issue of equal rights. Carmen Rivera, President of the Triangle Club at Seattle University, works with members of the club to educate and bring awareness about the LGBT community. “If R-71 is approved it will not only show Washington state but also the nation that we can look past ignorance and bigotry and obtain the rights that are guaranteed to us,” says Rivera. “We’re going to keep fighting for the rights that we deserve as American citizens.”

Quinn Majeski, President of the Young Democrats at UW, the group that wanted LGBT rights to top their list of priorities, understands that there is a generational divide when it comes to LGBT issues. “Younger voters are more likely to support LGBT rights,” Majeski says. According to Pew research, the majority—58 percent—of young people support same-sex marriage, more than any other age group.

Under the leadership of Majeski, the Young Democrats at UW have canvassed at the school’s homecoming game and participated in phone banking in support of R-71. Their efforts are all in hopes of getting UW students and other young people aware of what’s at stake in the election today.

Noel Frame, Deputy Campaign Manager for the Approve R-71 campaign, has seen young people in Seattle and across Washington state come out in droves to support the approval of R-71. Frame says, “Youth involvement has been huge in this campaign. What I am so proud of is that this is not simply outreach from the campaign to youth, but youth getting involved in the campaign and taking a role and really owning parts of the campaign operation.”

Recognizing the importance of youth involvement in this campaign has driven the Approve R-71 campaign to take an approach similar to the Obama campaign in 2008, by using different communication channels to mobilize young people. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, the blogosphere, and other social networking sites have been crucial to getting the message of Approve R-71 to young people. The campaign has also benefitted from partnerships with Rock the Vote and Washington Bus, two organizations that seek to empower, train, and support young people. Frame has seen youth take the message of the Approve R-71 campaign and make it their own. Young people are taking action through blog threads and posts on Facebook—something that maintains peer-to-peer contact that has proven effective in garnering support. “Whether [young people] are straight or gay, they are telling their story and they’re telling it in their own way,” Frame says.

Because this generation supports gay rights so strongly, Frame says young people are the key to winning this fight for LGBT equality in Washington state. “I think that this referendum specifically is pulling young people out to vote in an off-year election, when typically they wouldn’t vote,” Frame says. “Young people are seeing that approving R-71 is about ensuring equality for all families in Washington, and it matters to them.”

And what matters to young people in Washington state and how they channel that energy may actually decide the outcome for R-71. “If young people turn out to vote to approve R-71, we win. If young people stay home and don’t vote, we lose,” Frame says. Though young people historically stayed home in off-year elections, supporters of the approval of R-71, including Frame, are hopeful that the referendum and what it means for civil rights in Washington will draw young people out.

Opponents who will vote to reject R-71 have made their campaign against the referendum a crusade for the protection of marriage. In turn, the opponents misconstrue the point of the bill, which does not seek to award marriage to same-sex couples. “R-71 is known as ‘Everything but marriage,’” Rivera says. R-71 is simply about providing equal rights under the law to domestic partnerships, including same-sex couples, so that all families in Washington state are guaranteed legal protection.

Despite the misleading rhetoric that the Reject R-71 campaign has employed, Majeski is optimistic about the future for LGBT equality. “The future only looks bright,” Majeski says, “which doesn’t mean that we still shouldn’t be going door-to-door, making phone calls, doing whatever we can. But I’d say we only have good things to look forward to on this issue.”

Arielle Koreyasu is an events intern with Campus Progress and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle this spring.

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