Washington state says yes to equal rights
On November 3, in a close vote, the voters of Washington state appear to have approved Referendum 71, creating civil unions for same-sex couples with all the legal rights and responsibilities of marriage. The name “marriage” was left off only for purposes of reassuring the timid. Proponents wanted, desperately and insistently, to win a statewide vote on gay marriage after losing 31 statewide votes across the United States, and as Liberty goes to press it seems they have done it.
The vote is a milestone. Five other states have instituted gay marriage, but never by a vote of the people. Before 2009 it was always done by a court; the earliest ruling that still stands is that of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 2003. But for a republic to decide a question as deeply cultural as same-sex marriage by a vote of nine citizens is a kind of cheating. The public resents judges making the decision, and in states with the right of initiative and referendum – the Western states and a handful in the Midwest and Northeast – voters have tended to take the matter into their own hands. The other votes were constitutional amendments referred to the people by legislatures.
Eventually same-sex marriage will come to all 50 states. Two things make it inevitable. The first is the social acceptance of openly gay couples. The second is their adoption of children. Marriage follows. It is taking time because of older people’s discomfort with homosexuality, but younger people are much more accepting of it. They see the question as one of fairness and tolerance, and also as a practical matter of specific legal rights that adults and their dependent children need. Over time, their views will prevail, in liberal places first and conservative places later. </em>
Not a day too soon either.
