The opponents of domestic partnerships in Washington would have you believe that an act known as “Everything but Marriage” actively threatens marriage. In fact, a group known as Protect Marriage Washington is running an entire ballot measure to that effect.

Come November, Referendum 71 will ask every voting citizen of Washington if they agree with Senate Bill 5688, which granted most the same rights to registered domestic partners that a married couple has. A “yes” vote on R-71 would uphold that Senate.

Seems simple enough – vote yes and give people who love each other and live together the right to see each other in the hospital and deal with estate issues. But for Larry Stickney, the man running the campaign for Protect Marriage Washington, the referendum goes too far by destroying the classic understanding of marriage.

First of all, there is nothing classical about marriage. If we go back as far as the Greek and Roman eras, we would find that neither the state nor any religious body had anything to do with marriage. It was simply an agreement between two people, and often it had nothing to do with love. As for homosexuality, in the age of Caesar it was socially acceptable for men to be in a relationship with another man on the grounds that women were intellectually inferior.

It was not until John Calvin of Switzerland enacted the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva, some 1,000 years later, that church and state were brought together to grant a union. During the 1,000 years between Rome and Geneva, European families would often come together to marry their children more as a part of business and less as a romantic or religious entanglement. While same-sex marriage was not exactly “allowed” during the middle ages, two members of the same sex often made an equivalent agreement.

The attitude that gays are an abomination stems primarily from the Old Testament, which reads: “Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is an abomination.” The Bible also speaks of divorce in a less than flattering light, yet last year nearly 47 percent of marriages ended in divorce, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It would appear that the more frontal assault on the sanctity of marriage is coming from those who have the right to marry but don’t take the vow that seriously, as opposed to those who do not have the right yet fight desperately to have it. However, it doesn’t stop people from using the Bible to justify their positions.

Despite what is commonly uttered by the rank and file of the right, the United States was not born a Christian nation. Our war against Britain was not in the name of God but an opposition to tyranny.

The Constitution, in which our entire system of government is built, makes no reference either in passing or outright concerning Christianity at all, except for one important passage: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof ...” No congress, be it state or federal, has the authority to enforce a religious code of ethics onto the people. This is the face of tyranny that we fought so hard against.

This issue will never be completely solved as long as the state recognizes marriages in any form. The state should excuse itself from recognizing any marriages and simply issue domestic partnership licenses. Therefore, everyone is on equal footing.

If a couple would like to get “married” let them do it in a church. But all couples, regardless of their sexes, should have the legal right to be together. Vote yes on R-71 and allow equal rights for all.