Despite Fears Of People Marrying Bacon, Washington State Legislature Passes Marriage Equality Bill
It's turning out to be a very, very gay week for marriage. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California's Prop 8 is unconstitutional, the House of Representatives of the State of Washington just passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage equality, 55 yay to 43 nay.
Governor Chris Gregoire has pledged to sign the bill into law, which has already cleared Washington's Senate. As recently as Monday, that still made marriage seem like a distant goal for same-sex Washington state citizens; after all, NOM has pledged to put a voter referendum on the ballot to try and trump the legislative victory.
But here's the thing: as Chris Geidner explained yesterday, Washington is in the Ninth Circuit, which just ruled yesterday that a voter referendum singling out one class of people from their civil rights can't fly. Washington State would be foolish to go down the same Prop 8 path California was just slapped down for.
Most offensive in the floor debate was the hyperbolic religious language in a civil sphere (from both sides, actually), along with Rep. Mark Hargrove's outrageous comparisons of same-sex marriage to dying of AIDS, having a Biblical rock thrown around your neck and being tossed into the sea and -- most unbelievable of all -- saying that his vote was influenced by the motivations of a Jack In the Box ad. A JACK IN THE BOX AD. Apparently the ad (which we won't embed, 'cuz we don't want to give more coverage to such a wretched idea, if it really exists as Hargrove described it) has a man telling his mother he's getting married, and when she asks to what girl, he says it's not a girl. Hargrove says the mom's face flinches before her son says that he's marrying bacon. BACON! Mom is relieved to have been punked in this way and, apparently, doesn't slap the shit out of her son for comparing the holy union of matrimony, gay or straight, to a thirst for bacon.
And Hargrove actually asked his fellow legislators to think of the poor-mother-in-law to bacon! He called her "she!" And implored people to think of her flinch as their moral guidance! As if this were a real person and not an actress in a scripted Jack in the Box ad!!
We'll be talking about all of this tonight at 10:00 PM on Yetta Kurland Live! with Kurland, MetroWeekly's Geidner, and Marriage Equality New York's Cathy Merino-Thomas.
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