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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 4/11, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Right-wing, anti-gay bigots went down to another defeat in Washington state as 1995 ended. The people rejected two hate initiatives--numbers 166 and 167--when sponsors could not get enough signatures from voters to put them on the ballot.
For the last several years the religious right--backed by the big-money ruling class--has used anti-gay ballot referenda as a tactic, an attempt to rally their forces. Counting on what they consider "grassroots" anti-gay attitudes, they thought it would be easy to win support for laws that mandate discrimination against lesbians and gay men.
But organized resistance proved homophobia can be broken. When countered by an active education campaign in the streets, work places and communities, backed by a broad coalition of progressive forces, backward attitudes can be broken down and the right-wing steamroller slowed.
In Washington, the united efforts of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, working with labor and other community forces, was behind the defeat of the pro- discrimination initiatives.
Reactionary organizers couldn't go anywhere without confronting counter-organizing defending lesbian and gay rights. One group, Bigot Busters, sent teams of activists throughout the state to educate people on why it is right and fair to protect lesbians and gay men from discrimination.
Anti-gay supporters of Initiatives 166 and 167 used the same old tired lie that claimed lesbians, gay men, transgendered people and bisexuals somehow get "special rights" under anti-discrimination laws.
In most of the country discrimination based on sexual orientation is legal. In those states and cities where such bias has been banned, the laws provide civil rights to a group of people who commonly face violence, harassment and discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.
What these anti-gay initiatives would really do, if passed, is not put an end to "special rights"; there's no such thing. They would further institutionalize discrimination and deepen oppression. Furthermore, they could be used to take away the right of adoption for lesbian, gay, and trasgendered parents.
There's a more insidious, and more fundamental, purpose behind the initiatives and the organizing to get them on the ballot. It's to sow divisions, stir up hatred, and create a scapegoat for the hard times so many workers face. This time it failed.
State Rep. Val Stevens, a chairperson for the coalition pushing for the anti-gay initiative, called the pro-hate initiatives "dead in the water" for 1996 and announced she is quitting the pursuit of such measures.
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