During the 28 years we’ve been in a loving, committed relationship, we’ve worked at challenging jobs, paid taxes, voted, maintained our home, volunteered in community service projects, participated in religious observances, taken care of each other, our children and now our perfectly glorious grandson. We worry about the economy, our home’s value and our retirement accounts. As senior citizens, we finally collect Social Security and actually get discounts at the movies.
Still, we cannot get married here because we are two women. We cannot have the security that marriage provides, in the large and small ways that married folks take for granted. The domestic partnership law passed by the Washington Legislature provides all the state rights, protections and responsibilities for us as our neighbors have, except it is not marriage. We ask you to join us in voting to approve Referendum 71 and help us to a more secure future.
We respect all people’s religious views and under this law, no church is required to recognize our relationship. In our democracy, based on the separation of church and state, we hope everyone will keep their religious beliefs from limiting our civil rights. We agree to keep our religious beliefs from controlling their conduct, too.
Harriet Forman and Claire Fulenwider
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- The Columbian, Letters from Readers, PO Box 180, Vancouver 98666
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- With WAFST's online letter-writing tool
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