I don't typically comment on local or state issues in this blog, but the LGBT issue affects many people close to me and represents one of the major civil rights issues this country faces (and really amounts, in my mind, to an extension of the privacy issue).
As you may or may not know, Washington state is facing a potential voter challenge to a new law granting all the legal benefits and protections of marriage (save the legal title) to same-sex partners. Nicknamed the "everything but marriage" bill, Senate Bill 5688 was signed into law by Governor Chris Gregiore only a few weeks ago, but a challenge to it was expected long before then.
A group calling themselves Washington Value Alliance has been waiting to clear the legal hurdles necessary to begin gathering signatures in order to place a referendum (Ref.71) on the ballot that would effectively reverse the law while various LGBT-related groups have united under the name Equal Rights Washington (ERW) to begin a campaign called "Decline to Sign", hoping to persuade the voting public to let the law stand as is and not sign the petition being pushed by the Alliance.
Equal Rights Washington was in the news again this afternoon in opposition to the proposed actions of a new site called WhoSigned.org, whose founder, Brian Murphy, released a press statement today claiming that once the signatures for the Ref. 71 proposal have been verified by the Secretary of State's office, he intends to put them online for anyone who wishes to view them. On the sites he states:
Once signature petitions for initiatives and referenda are submitted and verified by the Secretary of State they are part of the public record. When signatures for Referendum 71 have been verified WhoSigned.Org will:
- Work to make this public record signature information accessible and searchable on the internet.
- Flag the 3% signature sample that is certified by the Elections Division of the Secretary of State.
- Provide Washington State Voters with a way to check that the public record of their advocacy is correct.
- Provide Washington State Voters with a way of reporting when their signature has been recorded either fraudulently or in error.
While ERW believes that this is the wrong way to go (fearing that it will take away from the initial goal of a positive campaign that seeks to defend the law), I have no problem with what Murphy is proposing. His actions aren't unethical or illegal, and in fact speak more to transparency than anything else. If one believes strongly enough that the "traditional" family model must not only be adhered to but actually codified into law, then they should have no issue of making their name public.
The Alliance's spokesperson and President Larry Stickney claimed in the linked article above that,
"This is a typical pattern around the country wherever the homosexual lobby is -- employing hostile, undemocratic intimidation tactics wherever their interests are challenged," he said.
There isn't anything undemocratic about what Murphy is doing. Much like the work LGBT activists did following the initial passage of Prop 8 in California, Murphy is merely making people stand in the sunlight and make their opinions known to their neighbors. If they have a problem with it, perhaps some soul-searching as to why is in order.