Congrats Mel.

I can’t wait til next monday!

It’s a difficult choice, and I’ll tell you why. First, I would prefer to tackle the whole country at once, no more piecemeal, state-by-state progress. But some say national-level legislation to repeal DOMA is doomed to fail–at least this year. I don’t believe that means we shouldn’t pursue it, but is it the best place to put money now? I am not sure.

What would definitely help *some* people immediately is winning state-level battles.

We have Maine, where they’re fighting to keep the law already passed in their legislature and signed into law that would give full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Their voters are going to be asked, “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?” Voters who support our right to marry will have to vote no. The polls say the voters are split pretty close to the middle, so getting a few more votes could mean the difference between winning (defeating 1 and enacting the same-sex marriage legislation) and losing (seeing 1 pass and the law rejected).

To donate to help the No On 1 campaign, you can visit: http://www.protectmaineequality.org/, or mail a donation to No On 1, PO Box 8780, Portland, Maine 04104.

Then there’s Washington State, where I reside. The law that was passed this year in our state legislature and signed by Gov. Gregoire did not allow *marriage* by same-sex couples, but did allow “everything but marriage.” So it would give us all the rights that marriage confers without the right to call ourselves “married.” It’s not everything, but it’s so damned close that it’s a really meaningful change for us. The law changes the definition of spouse–the word spouse would now include domestic partners, so all laws concerning spouses (and there are a lot) would be rewritten to include us, too.

Referenda in Washington go something like this: “Should x law that already passed the legislative process indeed be enacted as law?” So to keep the marriage-like rights we would have gotten if the law had ever gone into effect, we have to Approve Referendum 71, which we fought ever having on the ballot in the first place. Confused yet?

The people to donate to help domestically partnered (see what a mouthful?) Washingtonians like me are Washington Families Standing Together (WaFST), http://approvereferendum71.org/. You can mail a donation to 603 Stewart Street #819, Seattle, WA 98101.

My choice would be to donate to one of these two worthy organizations. If there are other readers with suggestions, though, I would love to hear them.

Again, thank you so much for donating. It means the world to us.

I would like to show my support by donating $70 ($10 x lucky number 7) to your project or the marriage equality initiative of your choice.

As the title of the post implied, we’ll have a contest every Monday. Oh, it’s fun to have contests. Keep playing!