I've been looking at some of the conversation on omjp since the Supreme Court of the State of Washinton (SCOTSOW) released its opinions on the constitutionality of Washington's Defense of Marriage Act. Here's a sample:

That marriage's main purpose is "procreation" and since straight people do that a little more conveniently than GLBT folks, gay people shouldn't be able to get married. This makes no sense and is just a smokescreen for good old homophobia. Who are these five idiots on our Supreme Court? Are there any good people to vote for to replace any of them in November?

The motivation to exact revenge for this failure to stike down DOMA is understandable -- it is a ridiculous law crafted by extremists and clearly violates the civil rights of gay people (although, to give the court credit, it wasn't asked to rule on whether the law violated civil rights; it was only asked to rule on whether the state had a rational basis for the law, evidently a pretty easy criterion to meet). The whole issue is complicated, however, by the fact that the Building Industry Association of Washinton is trying to stack the SCOTSOW with ideological conservatives:

The BIAW is the most aggressive, and the most ideological, right wing lobby in the Evergreen State. They despise regulation - everything from environmental laws to ergonomics rules.

The BIAW has used the initiative process repeatedly to get voters to repeal worker and environmental protection legislation it opposes. For example, Initiative 841 in 2003.

They are also partisan Republicans. They heavily supported Dino Rossi for Governor in 2004, dumping millions into the race, and stooped to playing dirty tricks on voters last year on Rossi's behalf. The BIAW also sued earlier this year to stop Puget Sound orcas from being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

It would be supremely unfortunate if the progressive community were to take revenge on particular memebers of the SCOTSOW over gay marraige at the expense of every other issue that progressives care about. And I do not like to contemplate what Thurston County would begin to look like if the BIAW had its way in the courts.