Peel back the fear-mongering, sky-is-falling rhetoric and examine the truth of SB 5688.

It simply ensures that all Washington families are guaranteed equal protection under the law. This legislation is not marriage. SB 5688 simply provides death benefits for the domestic 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. Radical stuff? Far from it.

In 2007, Sandy and I registered as domestic partners so that we could make health care decisions for one another and visit one another in the hospital. This year, SB 5688 afforded our family equal treatment of my death benefit and insurance. As a public school teacher, the state matches my contribution to the Washington State Retirement System. Were I to die, Referendum 71 would deny 50 percent (every dollar the state matched) of my hard-earned retirement to my grieving family. Like your family, my five children (three biological, one adopting and one foster) need and deserve this benefit.

Do unto other families as you would have done unto your own. Don’t fall for Referendum 71. Take a stand for justice, for equality under the law for all families. Ensure the protections families need and deserve are not repealed. Stop Referendum 71’s discriminatory efforts. Decline to sign.

Rachel Smith-Mosel, Federal Way