Equal Rights Washington NewsBlog

GSBA Candidate's Forum

2007-09-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

GSBA Candidates' Forum
Wednesday, September 12th, 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM

This is an opportunity to learn the positions the candidates have on issues of importance to the LGBT community and for the candidates to understand the central role the LGBT business community plays in the economic health of our region.
Moderated by Deborah Brandt, former KUOW morning anchor.
The races covered will be King County Prosecuting Attorney and Seattle City Council Positions 1, 3, 7 and 9.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit GSBA's website, or call (206) 363-9188.

LOCATION
Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue
1415 5th Ave
Seattle, WA

TICKETS
$27.00 - Members
$32.00 - Non Members
$27.00 - Students
Walk-Ins are $15.00 more at the door

Labor Day Holiday Action Alert

2007-08-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

This Labor Day, help defend the right of all Americans to be treated fairly on the job! In 31 states it's still legal to fire someone because they're gay and in 39 states it's still legal to fire someone for being transgender. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would change that. Visit our Action Alert page to tell your elected leaders to support ENDA now.

'Just Registered' Olympia Photo Album

2007-08-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Seattle Gay News and Equal Rights Washington were in Olympia on July 23rd for the first day of Washington state's domestic partnership registry. Go to the photo album (.pdf) to read about what happened and to see photos of many of the couples that registered in person. Congratulations to everyone that participated!

Couples Register in Olympia July 23rd

2007-07-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

See a short Trick Dog Films video about couples registering on the first day the new domestic partnership law went into effect.

Good Press is Good News

2007-07-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

What has the press coverage of the new domestic partnership been like? Take a look for yourself; we've compiled a sample of news stories from around the state. The overwhelmingly positive tone of the news shows just how far public opinion has come.

Domestic Partner Registration

2007-07-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Domestic Partnership registration forms and information are now available here on the Secretary of State's website.

Learn about the new domestic partnership law. Download The Legal Rights of Registered Domestic Partners in Washington State (pdf; 111 KB) brochure, produced by advocacy organizations.

Domestic Partner Survey Results

2007-07-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey about the new DP law! We've tablulated the results from the over 900 couples who responded. Download our press release (pdf; 19k) and the results summary (pdf; 14k) to see for yourself.

ERW Dinner Gala Sold Out - Cocktail Reception Tickets Still Available

2007-04-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

ERW is hosting its inaugural annual dinner at the Columbia Tower Club on May 4, 2007, with keynote speaker, Charlene Strong. Tickets to the dinner are now SOLD OUT, but there are tickets for the Exclusive Pre-Event Reception still available. More info on the Reception.

Click here to purchase your tickets to this intimate reception!

Action Alert: Thank the Governor for Signing the DP Bill

2007-04-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Governor Gregoire signed the Domestic Partnership Bill into law today. This historic bill will provide immediate protections for same-sex couples and vulnerable senior couples. It's important that the Governor knows how much you appreciate her signing the bill. We will continue to work toward full marriage equality. Today is a step in our journey toward our goal.

Beginning July 23, LGBT families and seniors can start registering as domestic partners with the Washington's Secretary of State. We could not have had this victory without the Governor's support. She has been a steadfast ally to the LGBT community. Please take a moment to thank her!

Take Action: email the Governor

Governor Signs Domestic Partnership Bill!

2007-04-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

The Governor signed it April 21st. This is a truly historic moment for the LGBT community and the allies, clergy, and people of faith who supported the legislation. More about the Domestic Partnership bill and what it does for LGBT couples. Read ERW's press release on this momentus event. [clip courtesy of David Rothmiller, LD Thompson, trick dog films]

Domestic Partnership Bill Signing Saturday!

2007-04-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Domestic Partnership bill is scheduled to be signed by Governor Gregoire at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, in the State Reception Room located on the third floor of the Capitol Building in Olympia. This is a historic day for the LGBT community in Washington State. This bill will provide emergency protections for many LGBT couples and families until the full rights and responsiblities of marriage are secured.

Thank you to the legislators, coalition partners, allies, and activists who worked to help make this day possible. A special thank you to ERW's supporters, who donated their time and money. We can't do our work without your help. The emails and letters you sent and the conversations you had with your legislators, friends, and families made a huge difference. We look forward to continuing our partnership with you as we move toward marriage equality.

ERW Announces New Executive Director

2007-04-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Equal Rights Washington is thrilled to announce the appointment of Connie Watts as our Executive Director!

“We appreciate the support ERW stakeholders gave us throughout our search process. We are confident our extensive search has enabled us to find the right person to lead ERW. Connie is a passionate advocate for social justice and will be a huge asset to the organization,” said Thomas Zambito, ERW Board Chair.

Connie hails from Utah, but most recently lived in Washington, D.C., where she worked as National Field Director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America for seven years. Connie and her partner are the proud parents of an 18-month-old son. "The opportunity to work with ERW and the Washington State LGBT community is both exciting and humbling,” Watts said. “I'm thrilled to work with so many passionate and committed activists and volunteers. Together, we will build on our history to grow a powerful equal rights movement."

Thomas Zambito, who led the search committee, said, "Connie Watts brings tremendous experience to ERW. We are really excited she is taking the helm of ERW and we look forward to working with her. Her level of passion for this work is palpable." Barbara Green, ERW's Interim Executive Director, said, "With her fundraising and leadership skills--not to mention her political savvy--I am confident Connie will help ERW grow into a stronger, more powerful organization."

Connie will spend two weeks working with Interim Executive Director, Barbara Green, before her official start date of June 4.

Please join us in giving Connie a warm welcome!

Celebrate LGBT Legislative Victories

2007-04-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Why is ERW celebrating?

It's unprecendented—it took 29 years to pass the anti-discrimination bill, yet in just one session we passed:

The Domestic Partnership bill;
The Healthy Youth Act;
The Cyber Bullying bill;
and the Pharmacy Board ruled in our favor!

Equal Rights Washington and the LGBT community have had an amazing week in Olympia. Thanks to all of you who helped make these wins possible by contacting your legislators, coming to Equality Day, and supporting ERW.

Celebrate these incredible victories by donating to ERW today!

As the session winds down, ERW is turning its focus to public education on marriage equality. We know that in order to obtain marriage we need a comprehensive peer-to-peer education campaign in key areas throughout the state. Your gift today will help us implement our plan immediately.

Thank you for your contribution to LGBT equality.

Sincerely,

Barbara Green

Interim Executive Director

Communications Fellowship offered at ERW

2007-04-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

Stipend: $3000

Start Date: May 15, 2007 to Nov. 15, 2007

The Communications Fellowship program was created by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) both to provide participants with an opportunity to build experience in grassroots media activism and to support state and local organizations as they develop new leadership in the movement for LGBT equality. The Communications Fellow for ERW will work in our Seattle office and will play a key role in supporting our communications efforts.

Applicants should be enrolled in a degree program at least half-time as a graduate or undergraduate student or have successfully completed a graduate or undergraduate degree. Journalism, Communications or Public Relations majors a plus, but any many apply.

For more information go here.

Help us in our quest to gain full civil rights and marriage equality in Washington State

2007-04-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

Write a testimonial explaining why you support marriage equality.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

Join a local equality team, work on issues in your area!Contact us at 206-324-2570.

Stick an "I do support marriage equality" bumper sticker on your car. Purchase a bumper sticker here.

Volunteer at ERW's Seattle office, located at 209 Harvard Ave. E, just north of Olive Way, on Seattle's Capitol Hill. Volunteers are also needed in our office. Call us at 206-324-2570 or e-mail info@equalrightswashington.org

Make a contribution to support the work of ERW.

Talk to people in your social circle about marriage equality. Did you know that most people who have a gay friend or family member have never talked to them about the issue? If you're a straight ally, please talk to everyone you know.

Politics, Sports Clash in Sonics Arena Bid

2007-04-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

A bid by the city's oldest major pro sports team for taxpayer funding to build a new arena has hit a snag over gay politics.

The SuperSonics, celebrating 40 years in the NBA this year, have asked the Legislature for a $300 million tax subsidy for a new home in suburban Renton. Team officials have threatened to move the Sonics, and the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association, if public financing is denied.

The Storm has a sizable lesbian fan base and last season held an Equal Rights Washington Day, in honor of a group that supports gay rights. Raffle tickets for a basketball signed by Storm players "sold like hot cakes," says Joshua Friedes, the group's advocacy director.

"We have out-of-state owners who don't understand that in the Seattle area, support for gay and lesbian families is incredibly high," he says. The metro area has the nation's second highest share of gay and lesbian adults, 6.5%, after the San Francisco Bay Area, UCLA researchers found in October.

Much Tension at State Pharmacy Board Hearing

2007-04-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Renton Community Center was the setting yesterday for a public hearing on proposed rule changes to pharmacies' and pharmacists' professional responsibilities to patients. The changes were strongly supported by Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, the Northwest Women's Law Center, and Equal Rights Washington. The room was packed.

Currently, there are no specific rules regarding pharmacists who, based on their belief system, refuse to fill a prescription. The Washington State Pharmacy Board heard citizens' comments for more than two hours.

The proposed changes to the rules would "prohibit a pharmacist from delegating the decision not to dispense a lawful prescribed drug to pharmacy support staff," and would "provide grounds for discipline when a pharmacist engages in unprofessional conduct, which includes: destroying an unfilled lawful prescription, refusing to return an unfilled lawful prescription, violating a patient's privacy, intimidating or harassing a patient, or discriminating against patients in a manner that's prohibited by state or federal law."

The State Of Washington Welcomes Equality Riders

2007-04-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, April 11th, the Equality Ride (a national tour of gay and straight young adults on a mission to end religion-based discrimination) will visit both Northwest University and Seattle Pacific University to address the grave fact that these schools foster discriminatory environments harming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. Both schools have welcomed the Equality Riders for a full day of programming which includes discussion panels, shared meals, presentations, and worship.

Read about Soul Force in the Seattle Gay News.

Paid-family-leave bill in doubt

2007-04-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

A bill to give Washington workers up to five weeks of paid family medical leave is clinging to life in the state House, where it has run into an onslaught of opposition from business lobbyists.

While the Legislature's Democratic leaders rave about the proposal, there are signs they might balk at passing it and instead put the controversial issue up for a statewide referendum next fall.

Supporters dislike the idea of turning the issue over to voters because they fear national business groups would pour money into a campaign to kill what would be one of the nation's most generous paid-family-leave laws.

"It would be a huge, expensive fight," said Marilyn Watkins, policy director for the Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute, a liberal public-policy think tank. "This would be seen as a national referendum on this issue."

The legislation passed the Democrat-controlled Senate last month. But it stalled last week in the House Appropriations Committee, where a similar measure died two years ago. Business lobbyists have been targeting a handful of moderate Democrats on the panel, urging them to block the bill.

Unable to come up with enough votes, committee leaders Saturday kept the measure alive by stripping out the details and passing just the bill's title and intent language.

Supporters must now try to revive the bill for a full vote in the House.

Read the whole article here.

Transgender Equality: State Human Rights Commission Seeking...

2007-04-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Seth Kirby at the Washington State Human Rights Commission is looking to talk with transgender or intersexed people who have had difficulties changing their Washington State Driver's License or Identification Card within the past year.

Have you....

...applied to change your gender marker and been waiting for more than a few weeks to hear a response?

...been denied a request to change the gender marker on your drivers license or ID?

...not heard back at all?

If you have had any of the above or other problems changing the gender on your Washington State drivers license or ID, please contact:

Seth Kirby

skirby@hum.wa.gov

360-586-3413

Correcting Workplace Injustice in Domestic Partnership Benefits

2007-04-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) has introduced legislation today to remove the tax inequity that denies gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and domestic partnership relationships the same health care benefit in the workplace that other Americans receive with employer-provided health insurance.

"Every American deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and equal treatment under the law, but that is not what is happening in the workplace today, and I intend to right this wrong," McDermott declared.

Tax Season Is Upon Us, and LGBT Couples Pay More

2007-04-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

As Americans from coast to coast rush to meet the upcoming April 16th deadline to file their 2006 tax returns, same-sex couples and their families--as well as their employers and tax preparers--face an unfair hurdle placed in front of them by the government.

Excluding same-sex couples from marriage means increased tax burdens for people who are trying to live their lives and do the right thing, including pay their taxes.

Let’s spread the word about the reality of discrimination in households across the country, and further the conversation about why marriage matters?

There are 1,138 federal protections, rights, and benefits; hundreds of state and local-level protections; and employer benefits provided through marriage from which same sex couples are currently excluded.

The Gay Tax Penalty: When it comes to taxes, same-sex couples will always pay more. Married couples can file taxes jointly and be taxed at a lower level, but same-sex couples cannot file taxes jointly, because they're excluded from marriage; same-sex couples also lose out on the ability to collect each other’s Social Security, receive automatic inheritance rights, or transfer property without being taxed.

Go here for more information.

Seattle Times: Opinion: Coming out of the closet to declare my humanity

2006-12-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

Anyway, to get back to the point, I'm not here to argue sexuality. I just find myself intrigued by the idea that if you're not gay, you shouldn't care about gay rights.

The most concise answer I can give is cribbed from what a white kid said 40 or so years ago, as white college students were risking their lives to travel South and register black people to vote. Somebody asked why. He said he acted from an understanding that his freedom was bound up with the freedom of every other man.

I know it sounds cornier than Kellogg's, but that's pretty much how I feel.

I know also that some folks are touchy about anything seeming to equate the black civil-rights movement with the gay one. And no, gay people were not kidnapped from Gay Land and sold into slavery, nor lynched by the thousands.

On the other hand, they do know something about housing discrimination, they do know job discrimination, they do know murder for the sin of existence, they do know the denial of civil rights and they do know what it is like to be used as scapegoat and boogeyman by demagogues and political opportunists.

Centralia Chronicle: Editorial--Courts deferring to legislatures, voters on marriage issue

2006-10-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Centralia Chronicle, WA, October 11, 2006
Editorial: Courts deferring to legislatures, voters on marriage issue

Courts in three politically liberal states - Washington, California
and New York - have now upheld legislative acts in those states that
ban same-sex marriage.

That is a reflection, at least in Washington and New York, of how
strong the public sentiment is nationally for preserving traditional
marriage. And it is an indication of the respect of courts and judges
in those states for the notion that policy should be made by the
people through the legislative process, not by judicial fiat.

...

It might be prudent for same-sex marriage opponents in this state to
seek a constitutional amendment to give protection to traditional
marriage beyond the Defense of Marriage Act. State courts cannot
nullify state constitutional amendments - only the U.S. Supreme Court,
ultimately, can do that.

...

As the laws and amendments indicate, the public opinion tide continues
to run overwhelmingly against allowing same-sex marriage. This
undoubtedly a factor in state courts' reluctance to wrongly attempt to
legislate from the bench.

[Read complete item . . .]

Seattle Times: Editorial--The defense of gay marriage act

2006-10-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

Seattle Times, October 5, 2006
Editorial
The defense of gay marriage act

The defeat last summer for same-sex marriage was by one vote, and the ruling was mushy enough to encourage advocates to keep pushing.
The Seattle Times is among those advocates, mostly for down-to-Earth reasons: the promotion of family stability and the protection of spouses and children. These are the same practical reasons for marriage between a man and a woman. In our view, as soon as society legalized homosexuality and allowed adoption by same-sex couples, marriage became inevitable. Last summer's ruling did not settle the dispute. Only marriage will settle it.

[Read complete item . . .]