So after following the vote count all night last night, and all day today, so far R-71 is being approved by Washington state voters by a slim margin of 52% to 48%!

I included the county map to illustrate just what's going on in this state.  As you can see from the color-coding, the yellow are counties that the majority voted to reject R-71;  the blue are counties that the majority have voted to approve.

Notice anything?  That's right, most of the state is yellow, which is funny because it's still passing!  But the thing to note is that King County, the county I reside in, makes up roughly one third of the state's population.

So even though a majority of the counties are in favor of rejecting the expansion of rights for domestic partnerships, the majority of the people are not!

Which I also find amusing because the head of Protect Marriage Washington, Larry Stickney, was quoted as saying that he believes "King County disproportionately affects election results in the state."

He continues by saying, "There's two sets of values in Washington.  There's values in Seattle, and there's the rest of us.  The vast majority of Washington counties are uncomfortable with the radical social agenda coming out of Seattle."

Awww, here, let me get you a tissue!

He seems to be under the impression that if so many people from King County lived outside of King County that somehow they would vote differently!  Hehe...sorry, couldn't help the giggle!

Like I said, just because a majority of the counties may be "uncomfortable with the radical social change coming out of Seattle" doesn't mean that "the majority" of the people are.

Also seems to me like another way of trying to rationalize their loss in this issue, by claiming that one county having most of the people is somehow unfair to the rest of the state.

The "reject" group also locked the media out of their results party out of fear of harassment (heard this before it seems) from the gay community were any of them to be shown on the news!  LOL!

Man, these peoples' paranoia never ceases to amaze me!

Historic, and yet bittersweet day all around.  As it appears the first "gay rights" issue put to popular vote will pass here in Washington, at the same time Maine was dealt a devastating blow in their Question 1 defeat!

To tell you the truth, I've never cared what anybody else wanted to call it as long as I got the exact same benefits.  I can still call my domestic partnership a marriage if I want, who's going to stop me?

But this still does me no good if my partner and I ever move from this state unless it is done on the federal level.

Next step, repeal DOMA, DADT, and enact federal legislation that follows the basis of R-71;  full and equal rights and benefits, as well as responsibilities of marriage in the form of domestic partnership that will be recognized wherever in the country we may go!

Of course there's still quite a few votes left to count before I stop holding my breath...but for the moment, I'm breathing a little easier at least!