Anti-discrimination lawsuit passed in Kalamazoo protecting gays, lesbians and transgenders

WZZM

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WZZM) - Overwhelming turnout in Kalamazoo helped pass an ordinance that includes gay, lesbian, and transgender people in an anti-discrimination ordinance.

The ordinance passed with 62-percent voting yes, and 38-percent voting no.

The Kalamazoo City Council voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance-- Tuesday it was up to voters. In one downtown polling place additional ballots were requested just one hour before the polls closed.

The ordinance will protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals against discrimination in housing, employment, city contracts and public accomodations.
At the campaign headquarters of One Kalamazoo, the campaign behind the ordinance, volunteers worked tirelessly. They say it's is about time there is something on the books to protect people.

"The whole premise behind the ordinance is making sure everyone in Kalamazoo is treated fairly and equally. No one should be fired from their job just because they are gay or transgender, and so at it's core this is really to make sure we are treating everyone the same in Kalamazoo," said Jon Hoadley, Campaign Manager for One Kalamazoo.

The opposition group says the ordinance was really a gay right's proposal masquerading as a civil right's issue.

They are deeply dissapointed in tonight's outcome, but they could not compete against the money funding One Kalamazoo. Tuesday night, they thanked all of their supporters and volunteers.

R-71 winning big in King County, slightly ahead statewide

by Susan Kelleher, Janet I. Tu and Jonathan Martin, the Seattle Times

UPDATE: Despite the razor-thin margin, the mood at the Approve Ref. 71 party at Pravda on Capitol Hill was celebratory. Anne Levinson, chair of the campaign, had trouble being heard over a cheering crowd.

"At this point, we do have a count statewide. We're at 51 to 49," said Levinson. "There's a lot of ballot counting left to be done."

As the crowd quieted, she said, "I want to thank those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us to push back this kind of hatred. We stood up and we stood up strong."

At the Reject Ref. 71 party in Everett, campaign manager Larry Stickney said, "I don’t know what to make of it yet."

“We’re still in the hunt,” he said. “We’re far from conceding.”

Regardless of how the vote goes “it’s important what’s been accomplished here,” Stickney said, talking about the case the U.S. Supreme Court may take up on whether to release the signatures of R-71 petition signers.

In addition, “we’ve got a re-engaged community,” he said, talking about the conservative Christian political community. “We’ve had a deflated movement” previously, he said.

He said it’s too early to say what their next steps are.

Ref. 71 was passing in 10 of Washington's 39 counties, all of them in the Puget Sound area. It was passing 2-to-1 in King County.

At the Approve Ref. 71 campaign on Capitol Hill, Marie Rose, 55, and her partner, Laura, 45, smiled as they sat on a white cube couch with their arms around each other after the early returns. The couple, together for 10 years, were married last February in Canada. "I just walked through the room and I almost cried,'' Marie Rose said. "Everyone worked really hard. Everyone is just waiting for every percentage."

Several weeks ago, she attended a Protect Marriage rally in Lynnwood that left her shaken.

"I felt like a Jew in 1932 Germany,'' she said. She began to feel optimist, she said, when a passerby looked on disapprovingly at the rallygoers and remarked, "I never thought i'd ever see something like that in Lynnwood."


UPDATE: In an apparent victory for gay rights supporters, voters seemed to be approving Referendum 71, which expands the state's domestic partnership law.

The results, if they hold, would be a disappointment to religious conservatives, who had mounted an aggressive campaign against conferring additional benefits on committed gay couples and some senior couples.

Ref. 71 passed overwhelmingly in King County and was being voted up throughout the Puget Sound region. Voters in Eastern Washington, meanwhile, were rejecting the measure by wide margins — including in Spokane County.

In King County, yes votes were running 66 percent.

Early results statewide for Referendum 71 showed about 51 percent voting to approve the referendum, and nearly 49 percent voted to reject.

UPDATE: Pierce County numbers finally came in. The county, which is not vote-by-mail, was a bit slow to post, compared with the mail-in counties. But as of 9:09 p.m., R-71 was losing in Pierce County. Some 52 percent were voting to reject, and 48 percent were voting to approve.

Pierce County could be key to the measure's fate. The next batch of Pierce County results were expected around 10:30 p.m.



If you assume the roughly 50 percent statewide turnout predicted by the Secretary of State's office, there appear to be far more votes left to count in the counties that are approving Referendum 71 than in the counties that are opposing it.

Photo Credit: MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Maine voters overturn state’s new same-sex marriage law

By Maria Sacchetti, The Boston Globe

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine voters overturned the state’s same-sex marriage law yesterday, delivering a potentially crushing blow to gay-rights advocates after a year when their cause seemed to be gaining momentum with legislative and legal victories in four states.

As the ballot counting continued well past midnight, the margin continued to grow - with 52.7 percent of voters in favor of the repeal - and the Associated Press called the contest in favor of gay-marriage foes shortly before 1 a.m.

The “people’s veto’’ came six months after Maine’s law was approved, and one year after California voters rejected gay marriage by a similar margin.

“This is an amazing moment. It’s beyond words,’’ said Mary Conroy, spokeswoman for Yes on 1/Stand for Marriage Maine, the organization leading the fight against same-sex marriage in Maine. “I feel energized, overcome, overjoyed for the family and the people of Maine.

“Clearly, this tonight is the people of Maine speaking.’’

Gay marriage advocates, who gathered in a ballroom at a Portland hotel, spent much of the evening dancing and cheering, but grew more subdued as the hours passed and the votes favoring a repeal of the gay-marriage law pulled steadily ahead.

No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly vowed to continue counting votes into this morning, but even he seemed to concede that they had lost this battle.

“We’re not short timers. We’re in for the long haul,’’ he said early this morning. “We will regroup. This is about love and commitment and family, and so we’ll stay the course. And I ask you to stay the course with us.’’

With the news, supporters of gay marriage dissolved into tears. One couple, Susan McCray and Yvette Pratt, had married in Massachusetts, but every time they crossed the border back into Maine, where they live, their marriage was no longer recognized.

“We thought we had it,’’ McCray said, holding Pratt’s hand. As they walked out, a woman called to them, “It’s not over.’’

Gay marriage supporters, who had cast the question as a classic civil rights struggle, had hoped that Maine voters would become the first in the country to sanction gay marriage.

It is currently legal in five states, but only by virtue of politicians or judges.

Opponents hoped to reaffirm marriage as a union between one man and woman after a year that saw four states, including Maine, approve same-sex marriage through the courts or in the state legislature. Every time same-sex marriage has been placed on the ballot, it has been defeated. They focused much of their argument on concerns that children would begin learning about gay marriage and gay relationships in school.

The well-financed race attracted national headlines, millions of dollars in contributions for both sides, and pitted Maine’s more liberal southern tier against its more conservative outer reaches. The vote, long expected to be very close, attracted a higher-than-expected turnout, with at least 53 percent of voters going to the polls, despite the absence of any other significant statewide contests.

In May, Governor John E. Baldacci became the nation’s first governor to sign a same-sex marriage into law without previous action by the courts. But the opposition was so swift that not a single couple exchanged vows.

Instead, with the launching of a referendum drive, Maine became the latest battleground of a fight that has been won and lost in other states, as gays and lesbians have lobbied for the same rights as heterosexual couples. Each side estimates it has raised about $4 million for their cause.

Yesterday, keenly aware of the national spotlight, volunteers frantically worked the phones to get voters to the polls from Madawaska, at the northern tip of Maine, to Eliot in the south.

Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage, in 2003, under a landmark decision issued by the state’s high court. Connecticut courts legalized gay marriage there in 2008, and then Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine followed earlier this year, either through legislation or court rulings. Same-sex marriage was briefly legal in California, until 52 percent of voters approved a constitutional ban last year.

Maine has struggled with gay rights in the past. In 1998 and in 2000, lawmakers voted to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians but voters narrowly struck down those laws. The law was ultimately approved in 2005.

Conroy said most of the Stand for Marriage supporters are ordinary families who are worried that children will read stories about same-sex couples in schools, that teenagers will be encouraged to experiment with their sexuality, and that same-sex marriage will become widespread. She said that gays and lesbians have won antidiscrimination protections and should “leave marriage alone.’’

“No one’s antigay,’’ she said. “It’s just whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. . . . Not so fast.’’

Among the Stand for Marriage supporters were Scott York, 31, a carpenter who voted at the Portland Exposition Building. He said he wasn’t particularly passionate about the issue until he worried, because of advertisements, that same-sex marriage could be taught in schools.

“It’s not my style,’’ said York, who voted to overturn the law. “I just don’t feel it should be taught.’’

Gay and lesbian families say the Stand for Marriage ads recall the discrimination of the civil rights era. Maine state Senator Lawrence Bliss, a father of three who married his partner in California when same-sex marriage was fleetingly legal, said he believed that Maine’s live-and-let-live values would prevail.

“I feel confident,’’ he said. “I know that in the final analysis, people in Maine understand that fair is fair, equal is equal.’’

Dozens of Massachusetts residents poured into Maine in recent days to share their stories of how same-sex marriage has unfolded and what Maine might expect if voters preserved it.

Holly Gunner, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said same-sex marriage has become “ordinary’’ in Massachusetts.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty