Washington state's anti-gay bigots are slinking out of the Holiday Inn in Everett. The SECB wasn't allowed to reenter the ballroom after one of the security guards spotted the SECB's notebook. We did manage to catch up with Larry Stickney, director of the Washington Families Alliance and the "brains" behind R-71, in the nearly-empty hallway outside the ballroom.

"I don't deal with you guys," Stickney told the SECB. "You guys need to be practiced in civil discourse before I talk to you guys."

A bit of background on Larry "Civil Discourse" Stickney:

He has been married three times (and divorced twice) since the 1980s.... Kitsap County Superior Court records show that, in 1994, it was Stickney's wife who needed protecting. His then-wife Cheryl alleged that he "badly injured" her twice, breaking her eardrum and injuring her jaw so seriously she thought it was broken. She also alleged that after they separated, "He's come over several times when I wasn't home and stolen and destroyed things belonging to my son and myself." A superior court judge issued a restraining order against him. Stickney didn't return calls from The Stranger asking about these records, but on his website he contends that preventing gay people from marrying is necessary because "the happiness and well-being of both the parents and the children are best served by the family unit."

Cheryl Anderson of Kent told the SECB that by granting rights to same-sex couples the state was depriving her of her right to, um, live in a state where gays and lesbians had no rights. And it wasn't going to stop at domestic partnerships. "You can not give them all of that," said Anderson, "and not give them marriage."

Anderson insisted that she doesn't hate anyone.