This'll be somewhat quick and dirty. This from the Seattle Times
Washington's secretary of state can release the names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state's expanded benefits for domestic partners, a federal appeals court said today.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Ben Settle in Tacoma to block release of the petitions.
Referendum 71 seeks to block expanded domestic partner benefits from taking effect in the State of Washington. In contrast to the marriage-equality measure in Maine, a "YES" [corrected from original diary] vote here is the progressive one.
It is still shocking to me that the wingers get aroused by what is, by this time, still a form of second-class citizenship. Domestic partnership registries and benefits were radical in the early 1990's. Now? Not so much. Yet the battle is still being fought on this front in what we'd like to think of as a progressive state.
The issue that is subject to the ruling is whether or not the names and addresses of those who signed ballot petitions forcing a vote on this law, which had been passed the the state legislature and signed by the governor.
State "open government" law mandates that this information is public information. The folks who want to limit or do away with even this "separate and unequal" status are not only bigots, they are cowards as well, and they want an exemption from the disclosure law to be in order to hide their prejudice. You'd think they had something to hide!
One of the commenters to the Times article noted that the names and addresses of petition signers are already available to anyone who happens to see them when the petitions are being circulated. So what the proponents of Refendum 71 want is to be able to get their way while not even being willing to be open about their agenda. They claim that they fear retaliation for their support in taking away a right that isn't even equal to what they themselves have. If I were a Washingtonian, I'd certainly like to know who among my neighbors thinks I am not as good as they are.
The court was right to slap them down.