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R-71 activists throw Olympia party; Reject-71 won't concede

• Published November 03, 2009

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The Olympia gay rights community celebrated with a bit of hope and restraint tonight. Up the road in Everett the religious conservatives opposed to Referendum 71 held onto hope at a gathering, too.

R-71's expansion of rights for registered domestic partners in Washington was passing by a 22,369-vote margin. It was 507,547 yes, 485,253 no when vote-counting wound down tonight. That's 51 percent in favor, 49 percent against.

That margin is closer than earlier in the evening. But if the domestic partnership measure hangs onto its lead when the remaining 700,000 to 800,000 ballots are counted in 39 counties over the next few days, Washington will be the first state in the union to affirm same-sex relationships at the ballot box, and the fifth state to recognize domestic partnerships (plus the District of Columbia).

After I filed a story for the morning paper about the state being on the verge of making history with this vote, I stopped downtown at Darby's Café, where civil-rights activists were gathered to celebrate and sip a little victory.

"How about those gays?" joked Anna Schlecht, a longtime rights activist and who has been agitating for social change for a couple of decades in Olympia. She said young people joining the campaign had helped put it over the top.

"I think we're really going to win," agreed Lynn Grotsky, a long-time Lacey therapist who helped break legal ground in the 1980s with a second-parent adoption case. She and her long-term partner, Lisa Brodoff, were featured in our story last month that profiled what is at stake in the R-71 vote.

"It's a huge deal that this state has voted that gays and lesbians should have the same rights as straight people — and it's right," Grotsky added.

"I think we're going to prevail," said Brodoff. "This battle is going to be won. It's already won in the hearts and minds of our young people. … I think it's a good night for human rights."

Quite a few people walked in and out of the café, some I recognized, more that I didn't. Quite a few were "straight" voters wanting to congratulate the winning side. Legislative candidate Stew Henderson and his wife were among them.