The Mighty Pen » Seattle

R71 petitions to be turned in Saturday

Joe Mirabella — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:04:01 +0000

The Stranger’s Dominic Holden reported on the Secretary of State’s Announcement,

The organizers, Protect Marriage Washington, have made arrangements to bring in boxloads of voter signatures at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Secretary of State’s Office in the Capitol. It takes 120,573 valid signatures to earn a place on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot. Election officials suggest a 25 percent pad, or roughly 150k, to offset duplicate or invalid signatures.

What does this tell us? Nothing really. Anti equality petition gatherers boasted they had 75,000 signatures as of July 15th. This was a guess on their part, though. They also boasted they have 1000 volunteers helping them. I wondering if they are counting the potential hundreds of people who requested petitions as a strategy to oppose their campaign? There are also several reports that they have paid signature gatherers working for them, and that said petition gatherers are lieing about what the petition is all about.

So with five days left we have more questions than answers. Just in case they are successful it doesn’t hurt to start talking about the future. If Referendum 71 does make the ballot, it suddenly becomes our best friend. We need to tell everyone we know to approve 71 to retain the domestic partnership expansion bill of 2009. Confusing right? This is exactly why each and every one of us is going to have to pitch in and help spread the message.

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Referendum 71 Decline to Sign

Joe Mirabella — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:06:02 +0000

There are only 8 days left for opponents of domestic partnership rights for same sex couples and senior citizens in Washington state to collect enough signatures for referendum 71 to qualify for the ballot. With the help of the Catholic Church and the Knights of the Columbus, Gary Randell and Larry Strickney have a fighting chance to achieve the magic number of 120,557 signatures by July 25, 2009.

A coalition of organizations organized by Washington Families Standing Together has been working to prevent referendum 71 getting on the ballot. Decline to Sign 71 Facebook pages, stickers, posters, and You Tube Videos have been disseminated throughout the Internet. Volunteers are collection pledges from citizens throughout the state at fairs, picnics, churches, and family gatherings asking people to decline to sign.

While we still have time to prevent extreme right wingers from reaching their goal, we can not assume other people are doing the work for us. Like any successful campaign, an engaged grassroots effort must take hold. What are grassroots you might wonder? Simply, it is you. You can make a difference by making a video about why equality matters to you and posting it on your favorite social network site. You can invite friends over to discuss equality in Washington and where you want the movement to go. You can volunteer with one of the organizations already working hard to secure equality, or you can just do your own thing. Whatever you do though, do not sit by assuming someone else is going to do the work for you.

I volunteer my time with Join the Imapct and Washington Families Standing Together because I share their enthusiasm for our future. Please consider doing the same. Volunteering can be simple. My friend Amy, and her wife Jessica, and I volunteered together to produce this You Tube Video over the weekend. Now thousands of people across the state and around the country are hearing our plea for equality. You can do it too!

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Referendum 71 petitions printed

Joe Mirabella — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:42:30 +0000

Supposedly referendum 71 petitions are out there, somewhere… but no one has seen them. Dominic Holden posted this picture in the Slog of one from the Secreatry of State’s office.

Referendum 71 Petition

Have you seen one? Where?

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Ignore the Westboror Baptist Church Seattle

Joe Mirabella — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:21:50 +0000

That’s right. Ignore them. The Westboror Baptist Church is coming to Seattle next week and lots of well intentioned people are planning counter protests. I strongly suggest going about your business like a normal day.

The group is a cult. They come form Kansas and they spread hate where ever they go. They protest funerals of fallen soldiers, they protest other churches, and this time around they are even protesting a pre-school.They are violently anti-gay and blame every problem in the world on gay people. Simply, they are insane.

It is very tempting to engage the cult by counter protesting them. I understand the motivation to do so. But think about this. These clowns want you to protest them. They know by doing so the news cameras are more likely to show up. Their messages are so vile and so extreme that they enrage pro-equality protesters. So here is the picture you are going to create by protesting them. The news media is going to show an image of their signs — messages we are all too familiar with and I refuse to reproduce here — and then they are going to cut to an angry gay man or lesbian shaking his/her fist and raising a bullhorn to a cult no one takes seriously. Takeaway — everyone looks nuts.

Instead, picture this. We ignore them. We don’t allow them to take our energy and resources away from far more important projects (like protecting Domestic Partnerships). The news cameras show up. They film the cult protesting a church — alone. The cult will look like idiots. Maybe the press won’t even show if they know the cult is being ignored. Even they have better things to do with their time. Either way, we look better because by ignoring them we show that we know they have no influence on reality. They are just a shameless group of fools that no one cares about. Not even us.

It’s time our community became a little more savvy about the way we respond to things. This is an opportunity to turn the other cheek and leave well enough alone. If you really want to do something good for the community, let me know. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to protect Domestic Partnerships in Washington and we could really use your help. That is what I will be working on while I ignore the most insane cult in America. You should to.

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Gary Randall, Right wing extremist takes me on

Joe Mirabella — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:57:44 +0000

Gary Randall, the right wing extremist who would like to deny senior citizens and same-sex couples access to domestic partnership rights and obligations in Washington state quoted me in his blog today from the Seattle Times,

“It’s inevitable,” Mirabella said. “The tide is in the direction of equality. It’s just a matter of time.”

Randall disagreed. In the future that I envision all Americans are treated equally. This is about the farthest from Randall’s dream of reality as possible. He hopes to impose a theocratic government based on a fringe belief system on all of us – gay or straight.

Because we see the world so differently, and because Randall has so publicly threatened the legal equality of my family, I formally challenge Gary Randall to a public debate in a public setting. As the representative for the anti-equality movement I should think Mr. Randall would welcome the opportunity to explain his political ideology, such as his belief that marriage is only for the genetic connection to the next generation. I think the good people of Washington deserve to hear the extremist agenda that he and his organization would like to impose on both gay and straight people alike.

So Mr. Randall, what do you say? Do you think you could drive up from Oregon and meet me here in Washington? I’d love to have a civil discussion with you about equality and civil rights. I am a gentlemen and will debate like one. So please sir, join me in Washington where we can exercise the greatest American political tradition, public debate.

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