Katie Blinn, the assistant director of elections for Washington State, will be sitting in a Tacoma courtroom later this afternoon with a DVD containing scans of every petition sheet for Referendum 71. If allowed by the presiding US District Court Judge, Benjamin Settle, she will release that DVD, immediately making the names and addresses of everyone who signed the petitionâto put the rights of same-sex partners on the ballotâpublic record.
Today's hearing results from Brian Murphy, who blogs as the Gay Curmudgeon, filing a records request for the petitions in late July. He intended to post the information on WhoSigned.org, thereby enabling gay people to civilly confront those who signed the petition. But the referendum backers, Protect Marriage Washington, argued in federal court that releasing the names and addresses would cause petition signers âimmediate and irreparable deprivations of their First Amendment liberties." The group said that âindividuals whose names are already connected with Referendum 71 have been subjected to threats, harassment, and reprisals simply for exercising their First Amendment freedoms of speech and association.â On July 29, Judge Settle issued a temporary injunction that prevented the state from releasing the information, and he agreed to resolve the matter today at 2:30 p.m.
âOur attorneys feel very confident that the judge will lift the order and agree with us that the petitions are releasably public records,â says Secretary of Stateâs office spokesman David Ammons.
A Massachusettsâs based group, Knowthyneighbor.org, has agreed to convert the names and addresses on the petition sheets into a searchable online database. Tom Lang, the groupâs director, says he hopes people can search the directory for the names of people they knowârelatives, neighbors, political leadersâand push them to discuss LGBT rights. âGays and lesbians and their allies need to breech that conversation gap and have those conversations with real people,â he says. âWe have never told people what sort of conversations to have. You know what to do when you see these names.â
âSomeone needs to reach out to them; we cannot demonize them or stereotype them on the whole, like they do to us,â he adds.
Assuming Blinn can hand over that DVD to Murphy this afternoon, the names of everyone who signed Referendum 71 will be posted within three weeks.