Voters to decide on definition of marriage in Washington state after signatures approved
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON, June 14, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - An effort to place the definition of marriage before voters in Washington state has secured its spot on the November ballot, after the state approved the required number of signatures on a petition.
Washington Governor Christine Gregoire.
Initiative 74 gathered 247,331 signatures supporting its place on the ballot, far more than the legal requirement of 120,577, state officials announced Tuesday.
Earlier this year Washington state became the seventh state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to allow same-sex couples to legally wed.
Now that the referendum has been approved, law requires that the new marriage definition be put on hold until the state’s voters decide.
Although Washington has allowed “all but marriage” privileges to same-sex couples since 2008, the state legislature passed a law granting the name of marriage in February, a measure that had been set to go into effect this month.
A survey by the Seattle-based Strategies 360 last month showed 54 percent of Washington voters saying it should be legal for same-sex couples to marry.
Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota will also wrangle with the definition of marriage on this year’s November ballot.
Maryland’s initiative would seek to overturn gay “marriage,” which also passed in February of this year.
In Maine, the homosexual lobby is making its its latest effort to reinstate gay “marriage” after such a motion passed the legislature but was shot down by voters in 2009.
