If this thing tanks, I own it.
  • Worried about nursing an orphan on his rainbowed teat.
Seattle's premier gay*, Senator Ed Murray, was in our office this morning talking shop on R-74, the referendum to approve gay marriage in Washington, and his message was fucking bleak: "I’m very concerned that this thing is going to lose," he said. "I’m not seeing the level of movement in the polls that we should see."

The problem, Murray says, is that during this same time frame in 2008, California's Proposition 8 was humming along in California, way up in both the polls and in donations. "We saw them up by 11 points in California and invariably lose by 8 points," Murray says, once national anti-gay marriage donations started steamrolling in, in late October. The late-game donations were used to saturate media with gay marriage fear mongering—including talking points about teaching kids about gay sex in schools.

And while we've got money, Washington's not where California was in the polls—we're hovering around 51 percent approval, according to a recent Elway poll. "And I can’t believe that the far right, nationally, isn’t going to put money into Washington State," says Murray. And if we see that huge 11th-hour push of anti-gay donations that liberals are bracing for, we're basically toast.

"Given the level of importance of this, there should be more people doing more—volunteering, donating," Murray says. "I hope everyone who cares about this issue gives something.

"Failure is an orphan and success has a thousand parents," said Murray, who's built his 17-year career on fighting for gay rights, most recently by successfully passing gay marriage in the state legislature earlier this year. "If this thing tanks, I own it. It's my orphan."

To volunteer your time or wads of cash, GO HERE.


*SORRY, DAN.