Gays, supporters back bill

OLYMPIA – With prayers, songs, the blowing of a ram’s horn and repeated shouts of “Justice!” more than 1,000 people crowded the steps of the state Capitol on Monday to call for a ban on discrimination against gays, lesbians and others.

“In the words of Winston Churchill, we will never, never, never, never give up,” said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. He has tried to get the gay rights bill passed for more than a decade.

Some church groups and social conservatives are trying to stop the bill, saying that it sets the stage for same-sex marriage. Citing a recent poll, they say an increasing majority of voters disapprove of gay and lesbian marriage.

“Proponents of same-sex marriage would like to get under the civil rights banner. They have made that clear,” Bothell pastor Joe Fuiten said in a recent meeting with reporters in Olympia. But, he said, “there’s no evidence that homosexuals are a disadvantaged minority. … It’s hard to make the case that you’ve been deprived of your civil rights when you’re doing better than the average citizen.”

Elected proponents of the gay-rights legislation, House Bill 2661, say it has nothing to do with same-sex marriage.

“It is unrelated to gay marriage,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday, shortly before addressing the crowd. “Anybody who says otherwise is simply trying to cloud the issue.”

Last week, House lawmakers attached an amendment to the bill, saying that HB 2661 has no impact on the state’s marriage statutes. Gregoire said that she supports such an amendment but that she thinks it’s unnecessary.

Monday’s rally was awash with religious overtones as ministers, a rabbi, a Muslim leader and others called for the bill’s passage. It would ban discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in housing, employment, credit and insurance matters.

The bill is similar to a city ordinance passed in Spokane in January 1999.

That November, critics forced a citywide vote on the measure.

“The people of my city upheld the ordinance,” Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told the cheering crowd. “Equality is the law in Spokane.”

Some conservatives have called for a statewide vote on the legislation. Gregoire said Monday there’s no need for such a referendum.

”(Lawmakers) were voted into office to make decisions,” she said.

Since the 1970s, liberal and gay state lawmakers have been trying to pass a statewide ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians. The closest they’ve come was last year, when it failed in the Senate by just one vote.

Two weeks ago, a former “no” vote – Republican Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland – said he’d had a change of heart and would this year vote yes.

“Finally, after 29 long years, Washington state will pass the civil rights bill,” Gregoire said.

Although no one in the Legislature is proposing legalizing same-sex marriage, matrimony was clearly on the minds of many at Monday’s rally.

“I do, I do, I do. I want to marry you,” the Seattle Men’s and Women’s choruses sang as a keyboardist played a few bars of the wedding march.

“Wake up, America,” the Rev. Stephen Jones said. “Same-sex marriage is here to stay. You cannot hold back the winds of change.”

The state Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on a court challenge to the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

So far, Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp have refused to say what they might do if the ban is found unconstitutional.

An evangelical group chaired by Fuiten, the Faith and Freedom Network, recently hired the Elway Poll to gauge public sentiment on same-sex marriage.

The results: Thirty-five percent of the public approves of such unions, down from 44 percent two years ago, according to the poll.

Democrats should be careful about following liberal leadership, Fuiten said, saying the poll indicated that 31 percent of Democrats oppose same-sex marriage. So do most self-described independents, he said.

“If you’re a Democrat out of Eastern Washington, the numbers are real clear,” he said. Support for gay marriage, he said, comes from government employees and “from a few square miles inside the city limits of Seattle.”

House Speaker Chopp dismissed the political risk assessment.

“I don’t have any faith in their poll,” he said.