Last week, a county judge ruled, on a technicality, against Washington Families Standing Together’s lawsuit to prevent Referendum 71 — which could remove the “everything but marriage” law from Washington — from going on the state’s November ballot. But she encouraged WFST to file its suit in the appropriate county. Which it did. But, yesterday, the judge in that county also rejected the pro-LGBT group’s challenge:
The lawsuit seeking to halt the vote was filed by Washington Families Standing Together, a gay-rights group. It claims Secretary of State Sam Reed improperly accepted thousands of petition signatures that supported putting R-71 on the ballot.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee rejected those arguments.
An appeal is considered likely, however. Also, the referendum’s sponsor, anti-LGBT Protect Marriage Washington, has filed a separate lawsuit seeking to keep the petition-signers names from being revealed to the public, even though the petitions are considered public records under state law. Protect Marriage Washington is claiming that the petition-signers will face harassment if their names are released.
And, remember, if this does make it to the ballot, it’s “Yes on Ref. 71,” to vote in favor of the legislature’s vote to give LGBT people in the state “everything but marriage.”
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