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January 10, 2007: "The goal is marriage equality. It's an important statement that our eyes are on the prize, and the prize is marriage." Senator Ed Murray to Seattle Times.
May 17, 2007: "Domestic Partnership [SB 5688] was an incremental approach--a strategic plan" to homosexual "marriage". Senator Ed Murray to Seattle Times.
January 28, 2009: " [SB 5688] is "A bridge until they can marry." Representative Jamie Pedersen to the Seattle Times.
The homosexual community has now joined hands and is preparing to walk across that bridge and re-define marriage.
In July, Josh Friedes, Executive Director of Equal Rights Washington, the states largest homosexual advocacy/activist group stepped down from his role and accepted a new role focused exclusively on homosexual "marriage" in Washington State.
They claim support in Washington to re-define marriage is growing.
ERW board chairman, Dr. Shilpen Patel says, "It is clear...that now is the time for ERW to further intensify our efforts to secure marriage in Washington State as early as 2012."
All the denials of intentions are behind them, their eye is on the prize, in their mind the goal is in sight and they are now staging to begin the pride parade across the bridge.
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This will be a battle that will touch every part of the state--every politician, every community, every church and every family.
It is not a political or even a cultural battle---it is a spiritual one. It will be waged in prayer, in the legislature, in the communities, in the churches and ultimately on the ballot. People who oppose will be hurt, maligned and slandered.
We have begun the work of building a coalition of like minded organizations and individuals.
It is very important that we have your financial and prayerful support now as we move forward.
Please take a moment and prayerfully consider what you can and should do to help.
You may click here to make an online donation or you may send a check to Box 399, Bellevue, WA. 98009.
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ERW and their allies are already planning as to how they will eliminate DOMA and change the minds of certain Legislators to accomplish their "walk across the bridge." And how they will persuade people who are undecided on marriage.
There is not space here for their full strategy as Josh Friedes explains it, but I have included it in this blog.
The following is taken from "The Seattle Lesbian" web site:
FRIEDES: We have learned from the negative experiences of Maine and California as well as many positive experiences, the most recent one being New York. There really are seven key factors to success. One, starting early -which is why we are making changes at ERW now. Two, engaging marriage equality advocates in peer-to-peer conversations with their social networks about why marriage matters. We have been doing this work for years but we are going to increase our emphasis on this strategy. Three, engaging diverse communities in our work - and when I say diverse I mean diverse. I’m talking about Unions, large and small business, faith communities, People of Color, and LGBT and allied individuals all across the state. Four, raising large amounts of money as early as possible so that we can do the education and organizing work to build a marriage equality majority in both the electorate and the legislature. Five, the marriage equality movement needs to be unified. An important part of my new role will be working to make sure that stakeholders are consulted and engaged in a unified strategy. This also means making sure that other issues are being addressed during the struggle so that nobody is left behind. Six, increasing the quality of grassroots contacts with legislators so that our elected leaders have a great deal of opportunity to meet with LGBT individuals, their parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, neighbors and clergy. Seven, we need to be more engaged in campaigns and elections. Who is in office matters and elected leaders need to know we have their backs.
One of the things that makes it so great to work on marriage in Washington is that there really is no viable way for there to be a state constitutional DOMA this is because, in Washington, the way you amend our state’s constitution is you have to pass a measure through both houses with a 2/3 vote before the amendment goes to the ballot for approval. Neither chamber would do that. What we have to be able to guard against is an effort to repeal a marriage statute when passed by the legislature. In the alternative we need to be able to pass a marriage equality ballot measure if we choose to go that route. Either way we need a marriage equality majority in the electorate.
We have a statutory DOMA that has been passed, and we can simply and effectively repeal that by passing a marriage equality statute. When we are not dealing with the constitution, we are able to do what we did this year when we rolled back parts of the State DOMA by passing the out of state marriage recognition bill.
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May God help us to stand together prayerfully, financially and with unity on this culturally and spiritually defining issue.
Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Active.
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