Although the ballots are still being counted, last night news outlets called Washington State’s domestic partnership referendum in our favor! As of late Thursday, we were wining by 52 to 48 percent, a deficit the Seattle Times called “insurmountable” for the opponents of gay rights.

I’m not going to try to spin it: Our loss in Maine yesterday, where voters rejected a law that would have given same-sex couples the right to marry, was deeply disappointing and discouraging. All of us here at the LGBT Project started yesterday hopeful and were further encouraged by reports that turnout was well above what was expected. But as the early returns showing No on 1 with a slight lead turned into a 30,000 vote lead for the Yes side, I had to concede that we’d lost (though I did keep hitting refresh on the Bangor Daily News results page until the wee hours of morning).

Now I’m here, dejected, eating consolation donuts provided to us by our friends in the Reproductive Freedom Project and wondering when and where we will finally get that first victory for marriage at the ballot box. But part of me can’t help but be excited about the many victories we had yesterday, in races big and small, that prove we’re making progress toward LGBT equality.

Diane and Marge live in Spokane, Washington in a home with two dogs and a lovely garden. They have been together for thirty years and raised two children together. When their son was five, he fell off his bike and injured his hand. Marge rushed him to the hospital, but because he was Diane’s biological son and they lacked legal recognition of their partnership, the doctors refused to treat him until Diane could get off work.

Rose and Joe live in Evans, Washington, a tiny community on the edge of the Lake Roosevelt in the farthest northeast corner of the state. Rose has a rare autoimmune disease and relies on Medicaid to help pay for the medications she needs. If she and Joe were to marry, she would lose this health care coverage. Their domestic partnership allows Joe to be with Rose during her frequent hospitalizations, and also gives him the ability to help make medical decisions if she is unconscious.

Penny and Karen live in West Seattle with their son Calder. Both Penny and Karen are firefighters and, having seen colleagues seriously injured on the job, they know how dangerous their work can sometimes be. Knowing they have domestic partnership protections helps ease the fear, guaranteeing that if one of them were to be injured on the job, the other partner would have hospital visitation rights and would receive support from the fire department.

Kari and Julia live in a suburb of Yakima in the center of Washington’s apple country. Kari is a school nutritionist and Julia is a family physician and they love living in a community where they know half the people they see at Safeway. As a physician, Julia has seen patients who have been unable to be with their loved ones in times of crisis, and so she is grateful that their domestic partnership will ensure that Kari can be with her in the case of a medical emergency.

Janet and Cindy live in Richland in the Tri Cities area of Washington where Cindy works for the Hanford Site and Janet is a minister at River of Life MCC. They have seven kids, six of whom they adopted from foster care. Janet and Cindy love raising a large family, and when they need an extra pair of hands, Cindy’s mother, who lives next door, comes over to help out.

Jen and Heidi live in North Seattle with their two kids, Max and Maggie. Heidi teaches high school English and Jen is a firefighter in the Seattle Fire Department. Vote to Approve Referendum 71 to ensure that if something happens to Jen at work, Heidi and their kids will have access to Jen's firefighter’s pension and death benefits.

Cathlin and Avril live in Clarkston, Washington, a small community across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho. Cathlin was recently diagnosed with cancer, and so now between their kids’ dance lessons and soccer games they squeeze in weekly trips to Spokane for chemo treatments. Cathlin’s family does not support her relationship with Avril and the couple are relying on their domestic partnership to ensure that their relationship is respected.

It’s hard not to be moved to support domestic partnerships when you hear Rose and Joe, a straight senior couple who live in the far northeast part of the state, talk about how their domestic partnership helps them cope with Rose’s medical issues. It’s hard to question the service gay and lesbian couples provide to our communities when you listen to Cindy and Janet talk about the six kids they adopted from foster care. And I challenge you not to cry when you hear Cathlin and her partner Avril speak about the uncertainties they face with Cathlin’s cancer treatments.