By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
As David Serkin-Poole stood among the 100 attendees at the ceremony in Olympia in which Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the bill that legalized same-sex marriage, he said he felt a collective holding of breath until the signature was complete.
“There was this moment of anticipation, and waiting and waiting and waiting, and sheer relief and joy that it actually happened,” said the cantor from Bellevue’s Temple B’nai Torah. Serkin-Poole is half of one of the eight couples that filed suit against King County nearly eight years ago, after he and his partner Michael’s request for a marriage license was publicly rejected.
At the same time, Serkin-Poole said as he looked around the room at the faces of people who had also been a part of this fight, he was reflecting on the roller coaster of reaching this point.
“It’s instructive and a reminder,” he said. “All of those so-called failures led up to this very wonderful day to see our governor sign into law marriage equality.”
Approximately 20 Jewish organizations and synagogues supported Senate Bill 6239, which grants civil marriage status to same-sex couples.
“I think it was just a great moment,” said Zach Carstensen, director of government affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, who coordinated Jewish organizational support for the bill. “A huge swath of the Jewish community has gotten behind this, behind an effort that doesn’t just promote marriage rights for same-sex couples but also ensures that religious liberty is protected and allows clergy an opportunity to decline to marry someone they don’t want to marry.”
Two rabbis testified before the state Senate in January in favor of the bill, and a 2010 Pew Research poll showed that 75 percent of Jews across the country support same-sex marriage.
That’s a huge leap even from when the Serkin-Pooles signed onto the lawsuit.
“Ultimately, it requires an individual, a person, to make that step of growth,” David Serkin-Poole said. “Even if it’s not a personal thing, when it comes down to being fair and just to all citizens, I think most Jews get that.”
Acknowledgment of the bill’s passage within the Jewish community was to include a Feb. 16 learning session at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, in place of what had become a traditional lobbying day in Olympia for marriage equality.
Despite the momentary high of the bill- signing ceremony, opponents of the measure filed paperwork to begin gathering signatures for Referendum 74, which will seek to overturn the new law.
Carstensen said the Jewish institutions that advocated for this bill will need to educate their constituents to keep the law in place.
“As a group, they’ve demonstrated an ability to put their heads collectively around the issue, and talked about how they’re going to talk to friends and neighbors, how they’re going to do the hard work of educating folks in their own congregations about the issue,” he said.
The law is set to go into effect June 7, though it is expected that enough signatures will be validated to delay the law until November, unless it is overturned. Should he be granted the right, Serkin-Poole said, “As soon as we get the green light, we will be as close to first in line as we can.”