I know most of you are asleep on the East Coast now but as a neighbor to the south of Washington I have to say I am pretty proud of the state to the north.
The results are in
Washington State came through with flying colors for equality for all and rejecting the odious Tim Eymann and his ilk.
In a night that needs good news, let us celebrate our triumphs.
And you know what? Numbers Matter.
So far over a million Washingtonians have voted. When all is said and done about 1.6 million voters in Washington State will have voted and by a 10-12 point margin they are going to approve a Domestic Partnerships law that had the following description on the ballot:
This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations accorded state-registered same-sex and senior domestic partners to be equivalent to those of married spouses, except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.
By contrast about half a million voters had a say on the Maine gay marriage initiative. It went down by less than 30,000 votes. 30,000 people is also known as a Seattle neighborhood.
My point here is that while we can analyze and worry about the results from Maine but the reality is a very very small selection of the electorate had a say and it helps to keep this loss in perspective. When 3 times that many had their say in Washinton, they supported a bill who's language reads alot like most gay marriage ballot titles.
Thank you Washington Voters!