Special report: election '97.

WASHINGTON STATE

Taking gay rights to the people

Election Day is fast approaching, and the focus this year for gay men and lesbians is on Washington--State, that is. Voters will consider a ballot measure prohibiting antigay discrimination. Initiative 677, as the measure is known, would ban employment discrimination. Should the measure pass, it would be one of the few gay rights laws in the nation ever to pass by popular ballot as opposed to making its way through an elected body.

The initiative has some key support, including that of Gov. Gary Locke, who is a Democrat and the nation's first Chinese-American governor. At a fundraiser on September 18, Locke described the measure as "one of the simplest, shortest, and clearest initiatives ever put before the people of Washington. It is also one of the most important." Opponents of the measure have dragged out the standard rhetoric. "God calls it sodomy; we call it gay rights, alternative lifestyles," says Walter Mize, who is leading the opposition. Locke, for one, dismisses such arguments. "This is an American issue," he told the fund-raising audience. "Doing this work is both our birthright and patriotic duty.

MAINE

Giveth, then taketh away

Gay rights foes in Maine are hard at work campaigning to overturn that state's gay rights law. The Christian Civic League's executive director, Michael Heath, handed over 58,750 signatures to Maine's secretary of state last month to put the referendum on the March 1998 ballot. Meanwhile, the law banning discrimination in housing, public accommodations, credit, and employment has been put on hold.