Tag: Washington state

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Washington: GOP bill looks to circumvent non-discrimination law

Several Republican lawmakers filed a bill Thursday seeking an exemption to the state’s anti-discrimination laws just weeks after legal action was taken against a Richland, Wash., florist who denied service to a gay couple for their upcoming wedding.

The bill introduced by Sen. Sharon Brown (R-Kennewick), would allow businesses the right to deny services or goods if they felt doing so was contrary to their “sincerely held religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, or matters of conscience.”

The measure would not apply to the denial of services to people under a protected class under federal law, such as race, religion or disability.

Brown said the measure seeks to protect people or religious organizations from legal persecution. “There’s a glaring lack of protection for religion in state law,” she said.

The bill has not yet been referred to a committee or scheduled for a public hearing, and is not likely to before the regular legislative session ends on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state filed a lawsuit in response to a March 1 incident in which Barronelle Stutzman refused to provide flowers for Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed’s wedding, despite the two men being longtime patrons of her shop – Arlene’s Flowers and Gifts in Richland, which is in Brown’s legislative district.

Protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation were codified in 2006.  Under state law, it’s illegal for businesses to refuse to sell goods, merchandise and services to any person because of their sexual orientation.

Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, said that the bill seeks to undermine the state’s anti-discrimination laws “and it undermines our entire approach to ensuring the equality of all Washingtonians in commerce.”

“It is discrimination, pure and simple,” he said.

More at LGBTQNation

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Washington: Florist being sued for discriminating against gay couple

So, here’s how I got the story:

A couple of months ago, Baronelle Stuzman, a Washington state florist, told longtime customers, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, that she refused to do business with them — or “participate in the wedding,” as she called it — because she believed as a Christian “that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Freed, 43, pointed out that they never asked her to “participate” in their wedding — just to sell them flowers FOR their wedding. The couple has been buying flowers from the shop for nine years.

In any case, Stuzman hugged her gay customer and merrily went on her way.

Now, she’s now being sued by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the SeattlePI reports:

Ferguson said he sent a March 28 letter to owner Barronelle Stutzman asking her to reconsider and supply flowers to customer Robert Ingersoll.  Through an attorney, Stutzman declined to change her position.
“As Attorney General, it is my job to enforce the laws of the state of Washington,” said Ferguson.  “Under the Consumer Protection Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation.  If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same sex couples the same product or service.”

The AG’s office s asking that a $2,000 fine be imposed for every violation in a complaint filed in Benton County Superior Court.

I think it’s important to reiterate that this legal action is not about marriage equality.   The law being cited and sued under, the Consumer Protection Act, was passed years before Washington’s recent marriage equality law.  The same suit could be filed if someone decided they didn’t want to serve African Americans or Catholics.

Of course, the anti-marriage equality folks are already touting this as a “gay marriage” issue.

From the National Organization for Marriage: “Like clockwork, those who disagree with gay marriage are being fined and forced out of the public square — by the state-imposed redefinition of marriage.”

And from Tony Perkins at Family Research Council:

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Washington state: Judges coming in on day off to perform weddings

I love when a community comes together for the right reasons.

From Dominic Holden at The Stranger:

After learning that City Hall is fully booked for weddings on December 9, the first day gay couples can legally wed in Washington State, King County Superior Court judge Susan Craighead called this afternoon to let me know that judges have made a plan. Judges will come into the courthouse on their day off, unpaid, to meet the demand.

Many people were told there was no room left at City Hall, Judge Craighead said on the phone, and wanted me to post this to help get the word out. “The building isn’t even heated, but we are willing to be in our courtrooms marrying people as needed. The court just realized that the community needs our services, and we are happy to provide them.”

When time was growing short in 2008 right before Prop 8 was passed in California, Michael and I headed to Palm Springs to get married.  We had already gotten married in Toronto in 2003, but really wanted a US marriage license.

The folks at City Hall in Palm Springs were swamped with couples looking to get married before the ax fell election day. Even with a full, packed schedule, the receptionist said “come down, we aren’t turning anyone away.”

We arrived to find couples and families filling the entry hall of City Hall.  Ceremonies were taking place everywhere in the building as the mayor and all city council members could perform the marriage ceremony. And in a quiet corner of the City Council Meeting room, the Mayor Pro Tem Ginny Foat married us.

I’m thrilled for the couples in King County. A very exciting and emotional time ahead this weekend. I wish the best for every single couple and family.

Celebrate kids!

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Photo of the Day: Washington state

Photographer Meryl Schenker captured this moment at a Washington state marriage bureau today.  The photo already has 1400 shares on Facebook.

From Meryl’s PhotoShelter page: “One month after Washington State voters approved the state’s marriage equality law in Ref. 74, same-sex couples get marriage licenses for the first time on December 6th, 2012.

“At around 1:30am, Larry Duncan, 56, left, and Randy Shepherd, 48, from North Bend, Wash. got their marriage license. The two plan to wed on December 9th, the first day it is possible for them to wed in Washington State. They have been together for 11 years.”

(via JMG)

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Washington state begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples

Shortly after midnight last night, Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller were among the first Washington state couples to receive to their marriage licenses.  Savage and Miller first married in Canada in 2005.

Hundreds of couples lined up in downtown Seattle Wednesday night for the state’s first batch of same-sex marriage licenses, in a historic, jubilant event that began at 12:01 a.m. Thursday and was expected to last for hours. They formed an eager, festive crowd, with couples young and old braving a night-time chill and wee-hours wait for the chance to make history at the normally dull King County Administration building. Supporters cheered for them with roses, coffee, hand-warmers and serenades of “Going to the Chapel.”

Photo via Seattle Slog, where you can find many more.

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Boeing Corp will deny pension survivor benefits to same-sex married couples

The Boeing Corporation has told union negotiators that it will deny pension survivor benefits to same-sex married couples despite passage of a marriage equality law there, The Stranger reports:

Ray Goforth [executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001] explains that his union has long sought equal pension benefits for same-sex domestic partners, to no avail. But since voters approved same sex marriage—establishing parity with married straight couples—Goforth re-framed the proposal to apply to his union’s gay Boeing employees who wed. “Their answer was that they had no intention of granting pension survivor benefits to legally married same-sex couples because they didn’t have to,” Goforth explains. Boeing representatives told him that pensions are governed by federal law, which doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, thereby trumping the state law on the matter.

“We were profoundly disappointed to see that they would use a loophole to engage in institutionalized discrimination,” Goforth says.

Boeing issued a statement to its employees late yesterday saying the company “is taking a closer look at how R-74 might impact company policies once it takes effect in December” but Goforth insists that the company was “unequivocal” in its statement to union negotiators that it intends to withhold the benefits.

I am NOT amused.

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States to reap income windfall from marriage equality

JoeMyGod points out an Associated Press report on the three states about a boom in business due to same-sex weddings:

Add the coast of Maine, the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and the shores of Lake Washington to gay wedding destinations.

Next month and in January, laws go into effect in Maine, Maryland and Washington that allow same-sex marriage. They’re the first states where voters approved such laws, rather than legislators or courts. Nearly 18,000 same-sex couples in those states will exchange vows in the first three years after the new laws are in effect, estimated The Williams Institute, a national think tank at the UCLA School of Law, and the laws should generate at least $166 million in wedding spending in the three states over the next three years from in-state couples alone, boosting tax revenues and creating new jobs.

Wedding-related spending for in-state couples is projected be about $16 million in Maine, $63 million in Maryland and $89 million in Washington. The numbers go up when figuring in out-of-staters who travel to those states to be wed.

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Washington state passes marriage equality!

Washington United just posted on their website the tally – 52%-48%

This is a clear win,” said WUM campaign manager Zach Silk. “We have run the numbers every which way, and we can now confidently say that we have won. This is an historic day for Washington, an historic day for our country and, most of all, for families across the state who have dreamed of this day and the wedding celebrations to come.”

Four states with marriage equality on the ballot last night.  Four wins for the good guys!

History, kids.  History.

Forward.

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Marriage equality votes still being counted in Washington state

From the Washington United for Marriage website: “We feel very good and we are cautiously optimistic. We’re at 65% in early King County returns and we’re out performing in Eastern Washington. We’ll need patience, but the numbers are coming in the right way.”

All Washington state voters have to mail in their ballots.  So it may take a bit to get this all counted.  But it is looking good so far.