Eyman wants voters to decide on gay rights

OLYMPIA - The day before the state’s ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians was to be signed into law, initiative promoter Tim Eyman filed the paperwork on Monday to force a statewide vote to overturn it.

“The voters have watched this disgusting display of arrogance and selfishness for weeks,” Eyman said, saying that lawmakers are bowing to interest-group pressure and re-election calculus. “Let the voters decide.”

He filed a referendum and an initiative to undo House Bill 2661, which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, credit and insurance decisions. To get the initiative on the November ballot, Eyman and his allies would have to collect about 225,000 voter signatures by July. A referendum requires fewer signatures but has an earlier deadline.

Proponents of the gay rights bill, which Gov. Chris Gregoire plans to sign into law this morning, said last week that they expected someone to file a measure opposing it. Some were surprised, however, that it was Eyman. Most of his 14 measures - seven of them successful - have targeted taxes, not social issues.

“I think he’s looking for another paycheck,” said Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle. He was referring to Eyman’s practice of soliciting money for a “compensation fund” for himself and associates. Last year, the compen sation fund totaled more than $300,000.

“I would fully expect him (Eyman) to get on the ballot - and I fully expect him to lose,” said Rep. Ed Murray, the prime sponsor of the bill. “This is a moderate state. Moderate voters are not going to turn down the right of gays and lesbians to have equal rights.”

The last time voters had direct say in the matter was nearly a decade ago. In 1997, Initiative 677 would have prohibited employers and labor unions from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Just like Murray’s bill, it exempted religious organizations and companies with fewer than eight workers. But voters overwhelmingly rejected the initiative, 985,169 votes to 666,073.

So what’s changed? For one thing, Murray said last week, voters are more likely than ever to have openly gay or lesbian friends, family members or neighbors. Murray and McDermott are two of the state’s four openly gay lawmakers.

Gregoire said Monday morning that she’d fight any attempt to overturn the bill.

“It’s just unbelievable to me that we would now turn our backs and say it’s OK to discriminate,” she said. “I have confidence that our citizens will say ‘no.’.”

Eyman, comparing Monday’s paperwork to the firing of a track-meet starting gun, said that he hopes to spark a 10-month debate over lawmakers’ decision.

State law has long banned discrimination on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, disability and similar categories. But critics of the new law say that sexual orientation is a choice, rather than an unchanging characteristic like race. They also predict that the law will create a legal case for same-sex marriage and fodder for a wave of discrimination lawsuits.

“The people know that the ‘Accept-me-or-else-I’ll-sue-you’ or the ‘Be-nice-to-me-or-else-I’ll-have-you-arrested’ approach will only increase resentment and conflict among our citizens,” Eyman said Monday.

Murray said it’s a mistake to decide the rights of minorities based on a majority vote.

“It flies in the face of what this country is all about,” he said. “What’s next? We’re going to decide that certain religions are on the ballot and we’re going to take their rights away? We’re going to put certain races on the ballot?”

Civil rights legislation in the 1960s probably would have failed on a popular vote, Murray said. He also cited a 1922 Oregon initiative that effectively outlawed Catholic schools until it was ruled unconstitutional in 1925.

“Is that really the path that we want to go down?” Murray said.

Eyman’s response: “We’re not living in Alabama and it’s not the 1960s.”