I’m glad that The News Tribune agrees with the approach that Washington Families Standing Together is taking in its efforts to encourage voters to Decline to Sign Referendum 71: education and understanding.

In 2007, the Washington Legislature established a domestic partnership registry and granted registered couples (same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples over the age of 62) rights to make health care decisions for a sick partner, to visit a partner in the hospital, to consent to an autopsy, and some property rights. In 2008, the Legislature extended these rights to include community property rights, probate rights, joint responsibility for debts and other protections.

This session, the Legislature passed a third law to add legal protections and obligations such as death benefits for the partners of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty, pension benefits for partners of teachers and other public employees, victim’s rights, and the right to adopt a partner’s child without paying for a home study.

Those asking for signatures on Referendum 71 would like to get the referendum on the ballot in order to repeal these protections and rights.

My partner, Laura, and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this year. We’re involved in our community. She serves as PTA president at our son’s school, and I’ve served on a number of community nonprofit boards.

We’re lucky that we both have good jobs, because we’ve had to spend a great deal of money and time over the last 20 years having legal documents drafted to assure that our family will be protected should one of us suffer an accident or catastrophic illness.

Until the domestic partnership law was passed, that was the best we could hope for. With the law now in place, we feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

I can only imagine how that same feeling of protection must be even stronger for other domestic partners who can go to work as firefighters and police officers now knowing their loved ones will be protected if something happens to them.

Now comes Referendum 71, a mean-spirited attempt to say that some families just don’t deserve the protections that many others take for granted. Strangely, if those behind Referendum 71 gather enough signatures to get on November’s ballot, voters will have to vote “Yes on R-71” to retain the law.

So, I’m faced with giving people quite a mixed message: Decline to Sign R-71, but, vote “Yes on R-71” if it makes the ballot.

One thing does give me hope, however. Over the last 10 years, more and more Washingtonians have come to understand the rather ordinary relationships of lesbian and gay families. They’ve also come to understand why the rights and obligations shared by married couples can be so very helpful to these families, too, and the tragedies that can happen when those rights aren’t in place.

As Laura and I go about our everyday lives, working, taking our son to T-ball, attending the end of the school year picnic and volunteering in our community, we share our life stories and discuss our family just like everyone else does. And, as our friends, neighbors, family and co-workers see that the life we want is really no different than the one they want, they realize that having the protections of domestic partnership benefits is just the fair and decent thing to do.

That’s the simple message of Washington Families Standing Together – please don’t sign Referendum 71, for the sake of all of our families.

Laurie Jinkins has spent her career working in the government sector and serving on a number of nonprofit and governmental boards and commissions. She and her partner, Laura, have lived in Tacoma over 20 years and have an 8-year-old son.