Starbuck the dog (maybe with some help from his owner BGK) has a good overview of the marriage equality debate shaping up. Go read the whole thing.
While I was there, this particular argument from the anti-side struck me as pretty disingenuous.
While the bill has been amended to provide narrow exemptions for religious organizations that do not choose to be involved in same-sex ceremonies, it contains nothing to provide the same protections for private businesses that refuse service for these ceremonies on the grounds of religious conscience. That invites massive new lawsuits against photographers, bakers and decorators, tuxedo and wedding dress stores, hotels, caterers and others involved in the wedding industry.
I want to be clear here: It should be illegal to discriminate in business in Washington, including in the wedding industry.* Discrimination is wrong, and it doesn’t make sense to carve out this piece from our anti-discrimination laws.
But even if that’s your problem, it seems like this referendum is a pretty poor way of going about solving it. I mean these groups have shown they can gather signatures en masse. If that’s the concern, why not let the marriage equality law pass and get their particular exception to our anti-discrimination laws on the ballot?