Washington Bigots Get Enough Signatures for November Ballot

The State of Washington doesn’t have gay marriage. But the state legislature recently expanded the benefits that gay couples are entitled to. The new law is nicknamed “Everything But Marriage.”

This was too much for the knuckle-dragging Biblehumping community. They immediately started a petition drive — known as Referendum 71 — to overturn these special privileges for homosexuals. Most people didn’t think the group would get enough signatures to qualify for a ballot initiative. Even the usual rightwing suspects weren’t too gung ho about this.

But the group has squeaked by with barely enough signatures. Even a liberal state like Washington has a certain percentage of neckdrooling witch-hunters. So the “Everything But Marriage” benefits will be postponed until after the November election when the Spanish Inquisition initiative (presumably) gets defeated.

The one silver lining here is the creation of the popular new online game — Whack-A-Redneck™.

By law, when you sign a petition to put an initiative on the ballot, your name and address become public information if/when the petition gets enough signatures to qualify. So the opponents of Referendum 71 have created this website — WhoSigned.org — sort of a statewide directory of Washington’s most retarded rednecks. Dial-A-Bigot.

The names aren’t there yet, but they should appear any day now. At the moment everything is on hold: There’s a lawsuit to have Referendum 71 blocked, or at least delayed.

And there’s another lawsuit to prevent the petition-signers’ names and addresses from being published online (even though it’s already public information). Some people think bigots have a right to remain hidden under their rocks while they try to take away other people’s rights.

When Homophobes Get Outed

That’s right, yank those bigots out of the closet. Lift up that rock and let the sunlight bore in and wilt those hatemongers.

The Washington state legislature has passed (and the governor has signed) a law known as “Everything But Marriage.” It gives gay couples all of the rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples, but officially it isn’t marriage.

As soon as the law was passed, a “Christian” hate group reared its head, determined to overturn this Satanic law at the ballot box. Referendum 71 has until late July to get the required number of signatures to qualify for an initiative next November.

The “Everything But Marriage” law is now on hold until the late July deadline, if there aren’t enough signatures. If the petition does get enough signatures, then the law will be on hold until after the results of the November election.

And this is where the plot thickens: a gay rights group has created a website which will reveal the names of everybody who signed the petition to overturn Everything But Marriage.

Gotcha! Come on, time to come out blinking into the sunlight and show us who you are.

The website is called WhoSigned.org.

This is just too poetic. There’s a certain vindictive pleasure in seeing a small-minded bigot get yanked out of his hiding place and revealed to the world. Show your face, Redneck!

But is this right? What if the shoe was on the other foot?

I personally can’t think of any petition I’ve ever signed that I’m ashamed of and wouldn’t want anybody else to find out about. But still, this could be a slippery slope.

What say you?

cross-posted at Bring It On!