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WA: Marriage Equality Repeal Effort Off to Slow Start?

Monday, April 9th, 2012

The drive to repeal marriage equality in Washington State is not off to an auspicious start, if the campaign’s reported number of collected signatures supporting a November referendum is accurate.

Though a judge approved ballot language for Referendum 74 nearly one month ago, the group Preserve Marriage Washington, the NOM-backed group pushing for repeal of the the new law, reports that only 5,680 signatures have been collected. 120,577 valid signatures are needed by June 6 to put the measure on the November ballot, and the organization says it’s aiming to collect 150,000.

A spokesman for the group told the Seattle Times that it would consider hiring paid signature gatherers to reach the minimum threshold needed.

Full Story from The Advocate

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: effort, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, petitions, repeal, signatures, washington

UK: Questions Arise About Signatures Gathered By Anti Marriage Equality Group

Sunday, April 8th, 2012

PinkNews.co.uk’s Edmund Broch explores how accurate the reliable the system is that appears to suggest that the Coalition for Marriage has amassed 400,000 signatures in opposition to the Government’s plans to allow gay couples to marry and asks ‘do their numbers add up?’

There is something fishy about Coalition for Marriage (C4M). Even insofar as the main aim of the campaign is to keep restricted the definition of marriage to heterosexuals, the origins and intentions of the group, especially its fundamentalist alliances, remain clandestine and worrisome. Thanks to a high-profile campaign, ads in national newspapers and magazines, and relentless campaigns through local churches, they seem to have garnered more than 400,000 signatures. But, to what extent do their numbers add up?

A few things must be noted first, before I explain some troubling findings about C4M. As the Independent noted this weekend, C4M has the same address as the influential Christian Medical Fellowship. And, as Adrian Tippetts noted in a column for this website, nor is the campaign a grassroots movement by any stretch of the word. Directors include Don Horrocks, head of public affairs for the Evangelical Alliance, who once compared same-sex weddings to humans marrying animals. “Soon there will be people wanting to marry their horse or perhaps three or four people all want to get married,” he once told the Guardian.

Full Story from Pink News

Click here for gay wedding resources in the United Kingdom.

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Tags: coalition for marriage, signatures, united kingdom

WA, USA: Competing Sides on Marriage Equality Law Gathering Support

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

There was a time when gay-rights supporters fought fire with fire, when they staged operations with names like “Bigot Busters” — showing up in parking lots, fairs and festivals — places where their opponents were collecting signatures with the goal of mixing it up.

Now, as the campaign to put same-sex-marriage legislation on the November ballot gets under way, those wishing to repeal it are making petitions available in hundreds of churches, businesses and private homes across the state, while their opponents have turned not to parking lots and community events, but to the Internet, hoping to “log” as many supporters as the other side can collect signatures.

Zach Silk, campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, a broad coalition seeking to defend the same-sex-marriage legislation, said the campaign rejected the more direct, face-to-face strategy as negative, choosing instead to focus on urging people to show their support by completing and returning postcards available online.

Full Story from the Seattle Times

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: churches, marriage equality, petitions, postcards, signatures, washington state

WA, USA: In Spite of Referendum 71 Claims, Marriage Equality Foes Unafraid to Gather Signatures

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court grappled with whether people who signed a state ballot petition should remain anonymous. “Running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage,” Justice Antonin Scalia said during oral arguments.

The case involved Referendum 71. The 2009 ballot measure sought, but failed, to repeal a Washington law allowing gay couples to register as domestic partners.

Backers of R-71 wanted the names of those who had signed petitions kept secret. The Supreme Court ruled that ballot-measure petitions are public records.

Full Story from herald net.com

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: Gay Marriage, marriage equality, referendum 74, repeal, signatures, washington state

USA, WA: Marriage Equality Supporters Also Gathering Signatures

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

Thursday, NBC Right Now told you about where to go, and who to contact if you’re interested in signing a petition for Referendum 74 and Initiative 1192.

But they’re not the only ones gathering signatures during this time. Washington United For Marriage, and other marriage equality supporters are seeking to match 150,000 signatures by the June 6th deadline.

Although politically it doesn’t mean anything, symbolically they say it shows there are more people in Washington who support gay marriage than oppose it. They are asking supporters to fill out cards, go online, or even join the cause on Facebook.

Full Story from KNDO

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: marriage equality, signatures, washington state

ME: Secretary of State Verifies Signatures, Gives Marriage Equality Go-Ahead for Ballot

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

The Maine Secretary of State today confirmed that enough signatures have been verified to place a Citizens’ Initiative allowing same-sex couples to receive marriage licenses on the November ballot.

“Just as my own thinking has evolved on this issue, more and more people in Maine are coming to understand that loving, committed same-sex couples should not be denied the freedom to marry,” said Pastor Michael Gray of Old Orchard Beach United Methodist Church and the citizens initiative’s lead signer. “We gathered signatures from voters in more than 450 towns all over Maine, and those people signed the petition because they want the chance to vote on this issue again so their gay and lesbian family, friends and neighbors can have access to marriage licenses.”

Advocates turned in more than 105,000 signatures from 453 towns and cities on Jan. 26. According to the Secretary of State, 85,216 of those signatures have been verified, far surpassing the 57,277 required.

Full Story from Why Marriage Matters Maine

Click here for gay wedding resources in Maine.

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Tags: ballot, maine, marriage equality, secretary of state, signatures

WA: Referendum 71 Donor Information Now Available Online

Friday, February 17th, 2012

Dominic Holden reports at Slog:

After years in federal courts and months of transcription, WhoSigned.Org went live this afternoon with a searchable database that includes the names and addresses of people who signed Referendum 71 in 2009. The referendum petition, circulated by anti-gay activists with the group Protect Marriage Washington, was an attempt to overturn Washington State’s domestic partnership law that granted same-sex couples the same state rights as marriage.

Full Story from Joe.My.God

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: domestic partnerships, marriage equality, online, referendum 71, signatures, washington state

CA: Prop 8 Repeal Gets Go Ahead for Signature Collection

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

A gay rights group that wants to repeal the state constitutional amendment that stripped same-sex couples in California of the right to get married received clearance Friday to start gathering signatures for a measure that would rescind the gay marriage ban known as Proposition 8.

Los Angeles-based Love, Honor, Cherish has until May 14 to collect the 807,615 voter signatures required to qualify its initiative for the November 2012 ballot, the secretary of state’s office said.

California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman. The measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the state Constitution, thereby overruling the court’s decision and halting same-sex marriages in California.

Full Story from SFGate

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: california, initiative, marriage equality, petitions, prop 8, signatures

AK: Gay Rights Measure Likely has Enough Signatures for Ballot

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Sponsors of an initiative to extend legal protections against discrimination to gay and transgender people in Anchorage on Thursday turned in a several-inch-high stack of petitions to the city clerk’s office to put the measure on the April city election ballot.

Volunteers collected 13,515 signatures of Anchorage registered voters in support of the initiative, said Trevor Storrs, spokesman for One Anchorage, the group behind the initiative. Co-chairs of the group are former Gov. Tony Knowles and former state Sen. Arliss Sturgulewski.

To get on the ballot, the group needs just 5,871 valid signatures, city clerk Barbara Gruenstein said. She said it will take until sometime next week for her office to review the signatures.

Full Story from the Miami Herald

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: alaska, ballot, gay rights, measure, signatures

Australia: Groups Turn in 140K Signatures for Marriage Equality

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Here’s the scene this afternoon as GetUp! and Australian Marriage Equality presented a massive pro-marriage equality petition of 140,285 signatures to the Labor Party National Conference in Sydney Convention Centre.

The photo above shows Finance Minister Penny Wong there to welcome to petition, with ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who is the Convenor of the Rainbow Coalition of Labor delegates who support gay marriage, and Australian Marriage Equality National Convener Alex Greenwich.

Full Story from Same Same

Click here for gay wedding resources in Australia.

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Tags: australia, marriage equality, signatures