Queer in Washington Just Got Easier

I’m very proud to be a Washingtonian at the moment, and even prouder to be a citizen of the great city of Kirkland - whose Republican Senator Bill Finkbeiner was the key swing vote in the 25-23 decision to extend the Washington Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Governor Gregoire has said that she’ll sign the bill into law.

The Seattle PI reports that local crackpot anti-gay crusader Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond will work with other homophobes to overturn the bill in a statewide referendum.

We have to make sure that victory doesn’t make us complacent. The other side is great at eliciting that gut level anti-gay reaction from a lot of people, and that could make the referendum successful unless we work hard to energize our own base to defeat it. Only time will tell if Washington has the requisite maturity to make this law stick. But for now, it’s a great time to be queer in the state of Washington.