Heraldnet.com
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009 10:52 pm
LocalNorthwestNation & WorldPoliticsSpecial ReportsPhotosColumnistsMultimedia 
Herald Editorial Board

Bob Bolerjack,
Opinion Editor
bolerjack@heraldnet.com

Carol MacPherson,
Editorial Writer
cmacpherson@
heraldnet.com


Allen Funk,
Herald Publisher
funk@heraldnet.com

Kim Heltne,
Assistant to the Publisher
heltne@heraldnet.com

Send letters to the editor by e-mail to letters@heraldnet.com, by fax to 425-339-3458 or mail to The Herald - Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.

 
WEEK IN REVIEW
Monday


Economy may silence Everett Symphony's season
Inmates with mental illness bring extra costs t...
Help with heating bills late to arrive this year
Sunday


Nurse seeks help healing hidden wounds of wars
Count drags on long after the election's over
Groups work to help those in uniform
Saturday


Nearly 30 kids adopted during annual event in S...
Gold Bar couple admit animal cruelty in puppy m...
Arlington area man's arrest in alleged burglar'...
Friday


Nearly 2,000 turn out for Stevens Pass opening day
Victim of alleged burglary now a suspect in kil...
Shelter asks for diaper donations during holida...
Thursday


Safety long a concern for road involved in fata...
State budget's $2 billion hole will require dee...
County considers building for disaster response...
Wednesday


Jury will decide accident or murder in girl's s...
Marysville rejects idea of a much later start f...
Flu’s full force shocks an Edmonds man an...
Tuesday


Year in jail for fired principal who kidnapped ...
State senator's ex-in-law threatened to kill hi...
$2 billion short, state will find tax talk hard...
 

ADVERTISEMENT

Editorials   Print This Article  Email This Page  Subscribe Now! facebook digg reddit del.icio.us fark stumble

 
ADVERTISEMENT

 
HAVE YOUR SAY
Feel strongly about something? Share it with the community by writing a letter to the editor.
You’ll need to include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) We reserve the right to edit letters, but if you keep yours to 250 words or less, we won’t ask you to shorten it. If your letter is published, please wait 30 days before submitting another.
Send it to:
E-mail: letters@heraldnet.com
Mail: Letters section
The Herald
P.O. Box 930
Everett, WA 98206
Fax: 425-339-3458
Have a question about letters? Contact Carol MacPherson (cmacpherson@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3472).
 
Published: Friday, September 11, 2009

REFERENDUM 71

Reaffirm law for fairness

The only confusion about how to vote on Referendum 71, the effort to overturn Washington’s expanded domestic partnership law, arises from the law-prescribed, non-intuitive, confusing semantics of such measures: On the ballot, creators and supporters of Referendum 71 will vote “no” to overturn the law. Opponents of the referendum will vote “yes” to keep the law on the books.

Voting yes to uphold the law will keep us on track with the progress made so far to ensure a greater measure of fairness for same-sex couples and their families by adding benefits and obligations to domestic partnerships that already apply to married couples. The benefits are sensible additions to the 3-year-old law in 10 major areas, adding domestic partners to sections of the law where currently only spouses are mentioned.

Legislation in 2007 enabled same-sex couples over the age of 18 and heterosexual couples with one partner aged 62 or older to register their relationship with the state as a domestic partnership.

It provided them a few benefits granted to married couples under state law such as the right to visit a partner in a hospital, administer their deceased partner’s estate and inherit property from a partner.

The 2008 additions to law included granting same-sex couples who register with the state certain property and guardianship rights, and placed responsibilities on them that already apply to husbands and wives. For example, before the law, domestic partners of elected officials were not required to submit financial disclosure forms, as spouses of elected officials are. Now domestic partners must submit such information. That’s good for equality and transparency.

This year, the Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire expanded the law further with Senate Bill 5688, the specific bill targeted by the referendum.

The laws makes registered same-sex domestic partners indistinguishable under state law from married couples with the exception that they cannot marry. This is key — these protections are necessary precisely because gays and lesbians cannot legally marry.

The domestic partnership law helps bridge some gaps with other Washington state laws, such as the one that allows same-sex couples to adopt. Their legality as a family is now reinforced with rights that allow them to make decisions, and uphold obligations and responsibilities, that only loved ones and family members can and should make.

A yes vote on Referendum 71 will keep us right where we want to be, reaffirming our commitment to ensure fairness and equality for all Washington citizens.

READER COMMENTS
Log in or register to post new commentLog out
I'm voting YES
I am a happily married hetero-sexual male who is not only sick and tired of homo-phobes but simply cannot understand why the populace has a problem with this, calling them "sexual deviants" when the same morons seem to think that the "financial deviants" who completely screwed up our society are OK? Don't we live in the "land of the free"? Aren't we not supposed to discriminate?
Brad Ashforth | Sep 22, 2009 11:50 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal
NO
In graduate social work programs the process of inching your way forward with unpopular social engineering and the legislation that supports it is termed incrementalism. This process acknowledges that the populace will not accept bizarre, radical policies if presented whole and unvarnished. So, the public is fed these concepts a bit at a time. The result is similar to a frog in a pan of water, which is placed on the stove with the heat gradually brought to the boiling point. The process is so slow that the frog will not leave the pan.... it dies.

So, sexually deviant behavior has been presented to the U.S. as acceptable, in bits and pieces, a little at a time, over decades. We are almost ready for the great leap forward - homosexual marriage. With the acknowledgment that deviant behavior is no different than conventional behavior great things can indeed follow.

I'm voting NO.

Veritas Splendor | Sep 11, 2009 6:14 pm | 2 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

1. Some stores, malls to get a jump on ‘Black Friday'
2. $6.5 million lottery ticket purchased in Lake Stevens
3. Fire displaces Arlington family
4. Everett man will take his do-it-yourself ethic to the grave
5. Inmates with mental illness bring extra costs to Monroe prison
6. When the customer is wrong and a jerk
7. Mayor-elect won over Granite Falls
8. Economy may silence Everett Symphony's season
9. Soldier who had lived in Marysville killed in Afghanistan
10. Ongoing road work near schools worries parents
Enterprise Newspaper Snohomish County Business Journal
Eat local this Thanksgiving
Mavericks moving on
Canada's Great Big Sea rolls into Edmonds
A. Murphy finishes 2nd in volleyball
Art Walk features music, demonstrations
EAT LOCAL: Getting the goods
Lynnwood HS history teacher Vic Bennet dies
Wildcats head to semis
CSO Chamber annual show slated Nov. 23
The Enterprise Online Newspaper


FREE 6 lb. Pad w/
30yd Carpet Purchase

$5 OFF
Lunch or Dinner

15% Off
All Repairs!

$2 OFF
at Box Office

Lube, Oil & Filter
Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE

$1 off French Dip
$4.99 Burger Basket

$5 Off
Stylecut

20% Off Dinner
Up to $75 Value!

Oil - Snohomish County
Low Prices - Fill Now!

25% off Bath & Groom
New Customers
TODAY'S TOP JOBS
 View All Top Jobs 
Top Cars
Top Homes

ADVERTISEMENT