A governor stops the marriage ban
A red pen against the marriage ban: how Washington's governor thwarted the Republicans in 1997 and still lost.
On 21 February 1997, Gary Locke, the new governor of the US state of Washington, vetoed a law that would have explicitly restricted marriage to a man and a woman. Only a few weeks in office, the Democrat thus stood up to the Republican majority in the legislature in Olympia.
The background: since a court ruling in Hawaii, conservatives across the country feared that same-sex couples might soon be able to marry there and take their marriages to other states. Washington was therefore to ban not only such marriages but also the recognition of those from elsewhere. When the Senate voted, the "Lesbian Avengers" protested with a public kiss on the steps of the Capitol. The bill then landed on Locke's desk on Valentine's Day of all days.
The governor had already hinted at his decision when, in response to a journalist's question, he pulled a red pen from his jacket pocket. In his explanation, he called the law divisive and unnecessary, since the courts already excluded same-sex marriage. The state had to reject hatred, violence and intolerance and rely on mutual respect. A Senate attempt to override the veto failed a few days later.
Locke was not, however, a champion of marriage equality. He personally opposed it and later came out in favour of registered partnerships. His opposition was to a law he saw as deliberate exclusion.
The success lasted only a year. In 1998, the Republicans reintroduced the bill, Locke vetoed it within an hour, and both chambers overrode him the same day. Several Democrats went along to avoid a heated referendum in an election year. Only in 2012 did Washington open marriage, and voters confirmed the decision at the ballot box. This made the state one of the first three in which marriage equality was upheld by popular vote.