Historic campaign
Approve Referendum 71
In 2009 the Washington State Legislature passed—and Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law—an expansion of the rights, responsibilities and obligations of the state's registered gay, lesbian and senior domestic partners. Commonly known as "Everything But Marriage,” the law was immediately challenged by a group of anti-gay activists who succeeded in gathering enough signatures to suspend implementation of the law until it was either approved or rejected by the state's voters.
As the general consultant to the Approve Referendum 71 campaign, Pyramid worked with Washington Families Standing Together (WAFST) to help mobilize pro-equality voters. The odds seemed insurmountable: 2009 was an "off-year" election, with an electorate that tends to be more conservative. Furthermore, not a single LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) ballot measure in the United States had ever been approved by popular vote. By the time the referendum was officially certified on September 2, 2009, there were only eight weeks to put together a winning statewide campaign and a mere five weeks to reach voters before ballots were mailed.
Pyramid hit the ground running, helping the campaign to quickly organize the efforts of more than 250 endorsing organizations, in-kind staff and volunteer leadership in the faith, business, and various ethnic communities. Furthermore, Pyramid produced emotive television spots, coordinated the production and delivery of over 350,000 pieces of direct mail, helped secure the endorsement of every major newspaper in the state, helped the campaign raise more than $1.5 million and coordinated voter outreach and mobilization that reached more than a million people in every corner of the state.
Washington voters became the first in the nation to affirm equal rights under state law for gay and lesbian couples by popular vote. With more than 53 percent of the vote, Referendum 71 became just the sixth referendum to be approved in the state’s history. Civil rights advocates across the nation are looking to Washington state as an example of what is possible in advancing equality and fairness for all people.
