NOM BLOG

Washington Attorney General: Voters, Not Legislature, Should Decide Marriage

 

SeattlePI:

The voters of Washington, not the Legislature, should be given the decision of whether the state legalizes same-sex marriage, state Attorney General Rob McKenna said Wednesday.

“This is an issue that every voter is capable of deciding, and they ought to decide it,” McKenna, the Republicans’ candidate for governor, told the editorial board of The Olympian.

The Attorney General said he supports full legal rights for same-sex couples — and voted in 2009 for Referendum 71, which affirmed rights of domestic partners — but is personally struggling with the marriage issue.

... A moderate Democrat, state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, angered a liberal-dominated town hall on Whidbey Island last Saturday by saying that she favors letting the electorate decide the issue.

McKenna, like Haugen, said a vote on the issue is inevitable even if the Legislature were to pass marriage equality.

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