Statement of Support

FAITH LEADERS’ STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR WASHINGTON FAMILIES
AND THE DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP LAW

The undersigned religious leaders, from across Washington State, have come together to speak with one voice for all Washington families.

Religious leaders before us have spoken to end slavery, and to ensure equal rights to all persons regardless of gender, nationality, religion, and race. Today, we feel compelled to speak out in support of Washington’s domestic partnership law which provides essential protections to families throughout the state.

As people of faith, we oppose any effort to take away the rights and protections provided to families through our state’s domestic partnership law.

As providers of pastoral care to families, we know that gay and lesbian couples form loving, lasting, committed relationships, raise children and grow old together. These couples and their children have the same needs and deserve the same rights as their heterosexual peers. We also know that the domestic partnership law provides important protections to non-gay couples where one partner is at least 62 years of age.

As faith leaders, we care about all Washington families. We have seen first-hand the burdens on a family facing death or illness without important legal and financial protections, from access to healthcare, to the right to visit a partner in the hospital, to the right to make medical decisions for one’s own children. We have felt the worry that exists when a parent who is a firefighter or police officer goes off to work each morning knowing that if something happens to her, there won’t be support for her family.

The domestic partnership law is about the relationship between the State and families. Clergy and faith communities will remain free, just as they always have been, and always will be, to determine for themselves their own religious matters.

We join as the signers of this statement, as a principled expression of our deeply held religious convictions. We stand in support of all of Washington’s families.

Read the Press Relase: Religious Leaders Announce Support of Domestic Partnership Law

If you are a faith leader who would like to sign on to the Faith Leaders’ Statement of Support for Washington Families and The Domestic Partnership Law click here.

How your faith community can help the Approve 71 campaign

All our faith traditions teach, in their own ways, that love and commitment are among the greatest values we espouse. As people of faith, we must do everything we can to promote a fair society that honors all and enables all couples with the legal and civil means for the opportunities and responsibilities that respect and honor loving relationships. Listed below are examples of ways in which communities of faith can take action locally to help ensure the approval of Referendum 71. Please contact Thomas Pitchford or Erin Clark, by email at faith@approve71.org or by telephone, at 206-324-2570 to sign on to the Faith Signers list or for additional information.

• Web page link and statements from clergy leader
• Bulletin inserts with Ref 71 info.
• Special email or newsletter piece (we will provide talking points)
• Community-sponsored night of phone banking at one of our campaign phone bank locations
• Letter to the Editor
• Outreach to faith communities and clergy who have not signed the campaign Faith Statement
• House of worship parties such as after-service meals with Approve 71 discussion
• Faith placard placed in windows (print out the PDF)
• Connecting Approve 71 campaign with members of your community for other volunteer projects
• Assigning a staff or community person as campaign liaison for items above or refer to your social justice committee (where applicable)
• Conduct personal fundraising asks
• Be part of our speaker’s bureau for clergy
• Print materials from website and make available to community members through the duration of the campaign

Signers

Organizations
All Pilgrims Christian Church
All Souls Universalists Community
Bethany United Church of Christ
Center for Spiritual Living
Central Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity
Church Council of Greater Seattle
Community for Interfaith Celebration
Congregation Beth Shalom
Congregation Kol Ami
Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church
Findlay Street Christian Church
First United Methodist Church of Seattle
Fauntleroy United Church of Christ
Grace Gospel Chapel
Hillel University Washington/J-Connect Seattle
Kol HaNeshamah
Lutheran Public Policy Office
Micah Project of First United Methodist Church of Tacoma
Northshore United Church of Christ
Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Open Arms Community Church
Path of Freedom Sangha
Pilgrim Congregational
Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church
Ravenna United Methodist Church
Richmond Beach Congregational, United Church of Christ
Saint Benedict Episcopal Church
Saltwater Unitarian Universalist Church
Seattle First Baptist Church
Seattle Unity Church
Shalom United Church of Christ
Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Church
St. Paul’s United Church of Christ
Temple B’nai Torah
Temple Beth Am
Temple Beth Or
Shoreline Unitarian Univesalist Church
St. Paul’s United Church of Christ
Temple De Hirsch Sinai
Trinity United Methodist
United Church of Christ
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island
University Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
University Christian Church of Seattle
Wallingford United Methodist Church
WA State Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice
Woodland Park United Methodist Church
Washington Association of Churches
Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ
Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation