[Vision2020] Gays, Supporters Back Bill

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 24, 2006) Spokesman Review -

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

 

Gays, supporters back bill 

More than 1,000 rally at Washington's Capitol to urge passage of ban on
discrimination

 

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, speaks to a crowd of more than
1,000 people at a demonstration on the steps of Washington's state Capitol
Monday in Olympia. The demonstrators called on lawmakers to pass a bill
banning discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered
people. (Richard Roesler/The Spokesman-Review )

 

Richard Roesler

Staff writer

January 24, 2006

 

OLYMPIA - With prayers, songs, the blowing of a ram's horn and repeated
shouts of "Justice!" more than 1,000 people crowded the steps of the state
Capitol on Monday to call for a ban on discrimination against gays, lesbians
and others.

 

"In the words of Winston Churchill, we will never, never, never, never give
up," said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. He has tried to get the gay rights bill
passed for more than a decade.

 

Some church groups and social conservatives are trying to stop the bill,
saying that it sets the stage for same-sex marriage. Citing a recent poll,
they say an increasing majority of voters disapprove of gay and lesbian
marriage.

 

"Proponents of same-sex marriage would like to get under the civil rights
banner. They have made that clear," Bothell pastor Joe Fuiten said in a
recent meeting with reporters in Olympia. But, he said, "there's no evidence
that homosexuals are a disadvantaged minority. . It's hard to make the case
that you've been deprived of your civil rights when you're doing better than
the average citizen."

 

Elected proponents of the gay-rights legislation, House Bill 2661, say it
has nothing to do with same-sex marriage.

 

"It is unrelated to gay marriage," Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday, shortly
before addressing the crowd. "Anybody who says otherwise is simply trying to
cloud the issue."

 

Last week, House lawmakers attached an amendment to the bill, saying that HB
2661 has no impact on the state's marriage statutes. Gregoire said that she
supports such an amendment but that she thinks it's unnecessary.

 

Monday's rally was awash with religious overtones as ministers, a rabbi, a
Muslim leader and others called for the bill's passage. It would ban
discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in
housing, employment, credit and insurance matters.

 

The bill is similar to a city ordinance passed in Spokane in January 1999. 

 

That November, critics forced a citywide vote on the measure.

 

"The people of my city upheld the ordinance," Senate Majority Leader Lisa
Brown, D-Spokane, told the cheering crowd. "Equality is the law in Spokane."

 

Some conservatives have called for a statewide vote on the legislation.
Gregoire said Monday there's no need for such a referendum.

 

"(Lawmakers) were voted into office to make decisions," she said.

 

Since the 1970s, liberal and gay state lawmakers have been trying to pass a
statewide ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians. The closest
they've come was last year, when it failed in the Senate by just one vote.

 

Two weeks ago, a former "no" vote - Republican Sen. Bill Finkbeiner,
R-Kirkland - said he'd had a change of heart and would this year vote yes. 

 

"Finally, after 29 long years, Washington state will pass the civil rights
bill," Gregoire said.

 

Although no one in the Legislature is proposing legalizing same-sex
marriage, matrimony was clearly on the minds of many at Monday's rally.

 

"I do, I do, I do. I want to marry you," the Seattle Men's and Women's
choruses sang as a keyboardist played a few bars of the wedding march.

 

"Wake up, America," the Rev. Stephen Jones said. "Same-sex marriage is here
to stay. You cannot hold back the winds of change."

 

The state Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on a court challenge to the
state's ban on same-sex marriage. 

 

So far, Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp have refused to say what they
might do if the ban is found unconstitutional.

 

An evangelical group chaired by Fuiten, the Faith and Freedom Network,
recently hired the Elway Poll to gauge public sentiment on same-sex
marriage.

 

The results: Thirty-five percent of the public approves of such unions, down
from 44 percent two years ago, according to the poll.

 

Democrats should be careful about following liberal leadership, Fuiten said,
saying the poll indicated that 31 percent of Democrats oppose same-sex
marriage. So do most self-described independents, he said.

 

"If you're a Democrat out of Eastern Washington, the numbers are real
clear," he said. Support for gay marriage, he said, comes from government
employees and "from a few square miles inside the city limits of Seattle."

 

House Speaker Chopp dismissed the political risk assessment.

 

"I don't have any faith in their poll," he said.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

 

Nothing like the sounds of justice and equality reverberating from Seattle
to start the day.

 

Take care, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20060124/b67f3b2f/attachment-0001.htm