The Pierce County Council’s consideration and vote to approve Ordinance 2007-108 on Dec. 4 was no ordinary occasion.
The issue: Whether to provide domestic partnership benefits to Pierce County employees.
More than 25 people provided what felt like two hours of overwhelmingly supportive testimony for the legislation.
Supporting it were citizens from every County Council district, county employees and noncounty employees, old and young, college-educated and noncollege-educated, employed and unemployed, wealthy and poor, gay and straight, partnered and nonpartnered alike.
Nearly everyone who testified in support gave selfless testimony. Their focus was not on how the legislation would impact them, but rather how it would impact the future of the county.
The first of two main themes was that providing equal pay for equal work leads to happier, more productive employees. The second was that offering domestic partnership benefits allows the county to recruit employees more effectively without worrying that the employee will choose the same position in a nearby county because it offers domestic partnership benefits and we do not.
Testimony at final hearings is important. In the case of domestic partnership benefits, testimony symbolized solidarity among citizens, proclaiming to the Pierce County Council with one voice, “We are here, we care and we believe that this county’s collective interests are more important than political party lines.”
I’m sure that the members of the council had already made up their minds before the hearing. But I’m also confident that evening’s testimony will have a long-lasting impact on the council.
When we have the courage to exercise our right to stand up and speak for our beliefs, we inform the future decisions of our policymakers as much as those of the present.
To me, that suggests that we all need to speak up on issues we care about before those issues become a product of legislation.
William Painter lives in Tacoma. He volunteers with the Rainbow Center of Tacoma, which advocates for the rights of sexual minorities.
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