Ballots are hitting mailboxes this week in Washington State. We have ours. (And when I say ‘we’ I’m speaking loosely: Kelley got hers, but I’m not a citizen so I can’t vote.)

The local measure that concerns this household the most is, of course, a state referendum, Referendum Measure No. 74 which, if it passes, will make same-sex marriage legal here. Handily, it’s in pride of place on the ballot: bang, right next to the little pictures showing you how to fill things in.

So we did. That is, Kelley did while I watched proudly:

I would like all voters in Washington State to vote to approve R-74. If the measure is approved, and I’m cautiously optimistic (very cautiously: it would be the very first time that marriage equality has been approved at the ballot box in this country), then Kelley and I could get legally married. It’s possible that we’d wait until marriage equality applied on a federal level before we actually had the ceremony–but maybe we wouldn’t wait. We’ll wait and see.
Meanwhile, it’s fascinating watching the last-ditch efforts of the opposition. Their TV ads say, basically: not approving of homosexuals getting married doesn’t mean you don’t like those poor, pitiful queer people. And their voter pamphlet blurb says: If R-74 is approved and gays can get married then “women can be ‘husbands’ and men can be ‘wives’.” This is not only arrant nonsense but outright fear-mongering–because, yes, there are some people for whom the notion of ‘upsetting the natural order of things’ is both bewildering and frightening.
There are a few other, minor voting issues that concern us–y’know, who’s going to be President, and Governor, and whether or not the police should just leave stoners the fuck alone and spend their time going after wife-beaters and murderers–but this is the one I want everyone to pay attention to.
If you or your loved ones are eligible to vote in Washington State I urge you to vote today to approve R-74. We’d be making history. Plus, it would make my day, or possibly year, or perhaps life.