Referendum 71 foe contends opponents are stealing signs

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Organizers of a campaign to reject Referendum 71 accused opponents of stealing the campaign's political signs, spotlighting an emotional debate over gay rights that is heating up as Election Day nears.

Signs urging voters to reject R-71 have all but disappeared in Yakima over the past week, said Skip Schoff, vice president of Christian Broadcasting of Yakima.

The referendum asks Washington voters whether to approve or reject the so-called "everything but marriage" law for domestic partners -- gay couples and heterosexual couples with at least one partner age 62 or older.

Out of 350 "Reject R-71" signs staked out by the group last week, all but about eight appear to have been stolen or destroyed, said Schoff, who added he filed a theft report with Yakima police on Monday.

That figure included 30 signs that disappeared Thursday night in Selah.

"I've never seen anything like this where they got that many that fast," he complained. "It's horrible, and I hope the public sees that this is what we're up against. ... This is the militant homosexual lobby at its finest."

Larry Stickney, campaign manager for Protect Marriage Washington, said the thefts are a problem statewide. He blamed gay rights supporters and accused the news media of "turning a blind eye" out of sympathy to their cause.

"It doesn't matter where (in the state) you are, they've got crews out there tearing them down," he said, adding, "I don't know who's organizing this, but they're angry. It's really something."

The Rev. Jane Newall, founder of Yakima's Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church and an opponent of the Reject R-71 campaign, said she was unaware of any efforts to steal political signs.

Newall was among nearly a dozen protesting outside a Tea Party event last week at the Yakima Convention Center where the referendum came under heavy fire.

Schoff suggested one or two of the protesters were responsible for the thefts. Newall said none of the other protesters, about 10 in all, were from her congregation.

She said that while she doesn't condone the thefts, she understood "some people are feeling personally attacked."

Josh Friedes, campaign manager for Washington Families Standing Together, a Seattle-based group that supports the approval of R-71, said he also is unaware of any organized effort to steal political signs.

"The conversation needs to stay civil, and we have to stay very very focused on the reality that rejecting R-71 would harm gay and lesbian families," he said. "Activities like that (sign stealing) detract from the conversation."

Schoff said he and a friend put out most of the 350 "Reject R-71" signs in Yakima early last week and that by the weekend most were gone.

"We put out 45 (signs) up and down 40th Avenue, and the next morning every one of them was gone," he said. "I'm not sure where they're dumping them. I'd love to know, because we really need them back."

Stickney accused opponents of the Reject R-71 campaign of "extreme arrogance and anger" and said he's been surprised that Yakima has not been as "favorable" to his campaign's message as he thought it would be.

Friedes, manager of the Approve R-71 campaign in Seattle, accused Stickney, Schoff and other supporters of the Reject R-71 campaign of having a disturbing lack of perspective.

The theft of political signs is nothing compared to discrimination against gays, he said.

"I do think there is a belief among the radical right that freedom of speech means there is no cost of speech," he said. "The things they are saying, their goals and objectives, they should expect to be met with a degree of anger."

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 509- 577-7748 or at cbristol@yakimaherald.com.