Many Washingtonians might not fully appreciate the historical significance of Referendum 71, which was approved this month by 53 percent of voters. It marked the first time that voters in any state had approved a gay-rights ballot measure. In each of 31 other states — including Maine this month — voters have rejected similar ballot measures. (Same-sex marriage is legal in five states, but only by judicial or legislative decree.)
R-71 affirmed a bill that extended “everything-but-marriage” rights to more than 12,000 Washingtonians who have registered as domestic partners. The rights include sick leave to care for a domestic partner and rights related to adoption, child custody and child support. Earlier bills extended hospital visitation and inheritance rights.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said our state “stood out in this country on (Nov. 3) by saying one of the inherent values in our state is equality.” Anne Levinson of Washington Families Standing Together said, “This is a day on which we can all look back with pride.”
Why and how did this historic vote occur here? I suspect it’s because our state has a long history of establishing and affirming basic human rights. For example, next year will mark the 100-year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in our state, affirmed 2-to-1 by voters on Nov. 8, 1910. This predated by a decade the kindred 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We were the first state to enact women’s suffrage in the 20th century, joining Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho. Suffragists worked vigorously toward this victory for many years, and often we overlook this reality: All of the voters on that momentous day in 1910 were men.
I suspect that a century ago, the angry status quo worshippers muttered the same two hackneyed complaints that we still hear today, voiced by the paranoid Slippery Slopers and the sanctimonious Institution Preservers.
Slip sliding away
The first group typically mongers the fear that R-71 will lead to gay marriage, and farther down the slippery slope will come marriage rights for bigamists, intra-family members and, of course, that ubiquitous crazy guy who wants to marry his goat. Slippery Slopers’ ancestors a century ago likely complained that if we allow women to vote, it’ll surely lead to voting rights for children, pets and farm animals.
The second group whimpers that R-71 will erode the sacred institution of marriage. But they have not offered any evidence that those 6,000 domestic partnerships in our state have hurt anyone, anywhere, in any way. Not one property value diminished, no one bodily harmed, no freedoms lost, only granted. Indeed, not a single heterosexual marriage in Washington state is in jeopardy because of the legal status of Ralph and Fred down the street or Sue and Nancy two blocks over.
No, it’s much more likely that a heterosexual relationship will be eroded by three alliterative termites that gnaw at the institution of marriage: alcohol, adultery and abuse. But instead of addressing those problems, the Institution Preservers are driven to near hysteria worrying about Ralph and Fred or Sue and Nancy.
I expect these two hidebound groups will survive into perpetuity and adopt new crusades as civilization advances. After all, they’ve stalled social progress since antiquity. We heard the same laments when folks started talking about legalizing interracial marriage, all the way up until 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court did precisely that. Today, most Americans (excluding a justice of the peace in Louisiana) dismiss race as irrelevant in marriage.
Also, the Slippery Slopers and Institution Preservers were in full-throated opposition to integrating the U.S. military, all the way up until 1948 when President Harry Truman did precisely that through executive order. Forty-one years later, when President Bush appointed Army Gen. Colin Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military was a black man.
Today, enlightened Americans reflect on these milestones in voting rights and civil rights and smile, wondering why it took so long to do the right thing. Years from now, our descendants probably will smile and wonder the same thing about marriage equality.
