Gay activist Dan Savage believes a
referendum on gay marriage in Washington state would be a “nail
biter.”
Opponents of the state's
recently-approved gay marriage law have vowed to put it up to a
popular vote.
Savage, the creator of the It Gets
Better project and the editor of Seattle weekly The Stranger,
said opponents are up to “very dirty tricks.”
“They're going to try to put two
referendums on the ballot, one that you'll have to vote yes on, one
that you'll have to vote no on to keep marriage equality in
Washington state,” Savage told 97.3
KIRO FM's Ross and Burbank Show. “They're doing it to confuse
voters.”
Savage also rejected opponents'
argument that gay people are attempting to redefine marriage.
“The issue is that straight people
have redefined to a point where it no longer makes any logical sense
to exclude same-sex couples from that institution.”
“A marriage can be religious or not,
monogamous or not, there can be children or not, basically when it's
an opposite sex couple, anything goes. They get to define what
marriage is for themselves. From that institution, under the equal
protections clause of the constitution, you cannot exclude same-sex
couples, there is no rational basis. That's what courts keep
finding,” Savage added.