WA Gay Marriage Law Suffers Setback – Will Now Be On The November Ballot

Posted by Christopher Welch on Jun 7, 2012 in This Day In Gay | 5 comments

Washington State’s law allowing gay marriage has been put on hold after an organization named Preserve Marriage Washington submitted an estimated 232,000 signatures to bring the issue to popular vote. You might remember in February when Governor Chris Gregoire signed gay marriage into law in Washington State making it the 7th state to legalize marriage between GLBT couples.

Gay marriage would have become legal in Washington today but opponents of the legislation were quick to act, beginning the long process of collecting signatures to bring the issue to referendum this November creating a similar situation to four years ago when Californians voted down Prop 8 in a general election.

Now begins the long hard fight to allow gay marriage to pass this November and you can bet both sides will be digging in and getting ready for a fight.

When I first heard about this I tried to imagine how many hours of work it takes to get 232,000 people to sign up for something. It makes me sad that people feel that this is a good way to spend their time and energy. Can you imagine how much better off we would be if people volunteered at a local community center, food bank or after-school program? It really blows my mind. What do you think?