Driving Equality

Day 81

I spent the day in Quincy, Washington. It’s a small farming town in the central part of the state. My friend Gerald grew up here, so I stopped in to see his family. Quincy is just a few hours, but a world away, from Seattle. The rural town has fields as far as one can see, and now has two traffic lights. I was warmly welcomed by the Todd family and had a great time talking about everything from LGBT politics, to worm farms, to life on the road. I felt right at home in Quincy. They fed me well. These were some of the kindest people I’ve met on my journey. Next time I return to the Northwest, I plan on stopping in to say hi to my new friends.

I also had an amazing interview in Quincy. Tracy, a gay man who grew up, and now lives in Quincy, agreed to talk with me on camera. He has an incredible story. Tracy and his partner are registered Domestic Partners. He spoke about how he feels like second-class citizens when he hears about the movement to take his rights away. Before the Domestic Partnership legislation was passed, Tracy and his partner tried to protect their relationship in some ways by drawing up certain paperwork with a lawyer. The process cost them $1,800, and that still didn’t even cover close to what the Domestic Partnership bill law does.

I wonder what Senator Val Stevens would say to Tracy. She is spearheading the effort to repeal the Domestic Partnership bill. When I interviewed her on Saturday, she told me that she wasn’t trying to take anybody’s rights away and that same-sex couples could still receive all the same benefits of a Domestic Partnership by drawing up the correct legal paperwork. I doubt that Senator Stevens cares that it would cost same-sex couples thousands of dollars to file that paperwork. Also, the senator is completely wrong; same-sex couples are not able to receive all the rights that a Domestic Partnership affords by drawing up legal paperwork. There are some benefits that only the state can grant.

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(This video was taken with the ‘behind-the-scenes’ blog camera and is not the actual footage for the documentary.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.