A citizen initiative which sought to
ban gay marriage in Washington state has failed to qualify for the
fall ballot.
Stephen Pidgeon, an attorney who in
2009 unsuccessfully worked with groups to overturn the state's
domestic partnership law, conceded on Monday that the campaign to
place Initiative 1192, which defined marriage as solely between a man
and a woman, on the fall ballot had failed. The initiative, he said,
was more than 140,000 signatures short. Friday is the deadline for
turning in petitions to the Office of the Secretary of State.
“I hate to say it … but we're just
not going to cross the threshold,” Pidgeon told The
News Tribune. “We're not going to make it. This measure
is not going to be on the ballot.”
Gay marriage foes have qualified
Referendum 74, which asks voters to uphold – or reject – a
marriage equality law approved earlier this year by lawmakers.
Pidgeon blamed Referendum 74 backers
for some of his measure's failure to qualify, saying that supporters
of the campaign to qualify Referendum 74 for the ballot repeatedly
attacked his effort.
“I'm just going to say that the well
was severely poisoned … We were killed by friendly fire,” he
said. “There were activists working with R-74 [sponsors] telling
people to burn our petitions, to throw them in the trash, that they
would be worthless – that it would be overturned by the 9th
Circuit [court].”
“It's about fundraising, my friend,”
he answered when asked for a motivation.
(Related: Microsoft's
Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer support Washington gay marriage.)