Washington Gay Marriage: State Senate Voting On Same-Sex Marriage Proposal

By RACHEL LA CORTE, The Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The Washington state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, setting the stage for the state to become the seventh to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

The measure now heads to the House, which is expected to approve it. Gov. Chris Gregoire supports the measure and has said she will sign it into law, though opponents have promised to challenge it at the ballot with a referendum.

The measure was passed on a 28-21 vote. Four Republicans crossed party lines and voted with majority Democrats for the measure. Three Democrats voted against it.

Any challenge to the bill can't be filed until after it is passed by the full Legislature and signed into law by Gregoire. Opponents then must turn in 120,577 signatures by June 6.

If opponents aren't able to collect enough signatures, gay and lesbian couples would be able to be wed starting in June. Otherwise, they would have to wait until the results of a November election.

Before last week, it wasn't certain the Senate would have the support to pass the measure, as a handful of Democrats remained undecided.

But after the first public hearing on the issue Jan. 23, a previously undecided Democratic senator, Mary Margaret Haugen of Camano Island, said she would be the 25th and deciding vote in support of the bill, all but ensuring its passage.

Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

Lawmakers in New Jersey and Maryland are expected to debate gay marriage this year, and Maine could see a gay marriage proposal on the November ballot.

The debate over same-sex marriage in Washington state has changed significantly since lawmakers passed Washington's Defense of Marriage Act in 1998, which banned gay marriage. The constitutionality of DOMA was ultimately upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2006, but earlier that year, a gay civil rights measure passed after nearly 30 years of failure.

The quick progression of domestic partnership laws in the state came soon after, with a domestic partnership law in 2007, and two years of expansion that culminated in 2009 with the so-called "everything but marriage law" that was upheld by voters after opponents filed a referendum to challenge it.

Under the measure that passed Wednesday, the more than 9,300 couples currently registered in domestic partnerships would have two years to either dissolve their relationship or get married. Domestic partnerships that aren't ended prior to June 30, 2014, would automatically become marriages.

Domestic partnerships would remain for senior couples where at least one partner is 62 years old or older. That provision was included to help seniors who don't remarry out of fear they could lose certain pension or Social Security benefits.

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The gay marriage bill is Senate Bill 6239.

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Follow Rachel La Corte on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/RachelAPOly

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Online:

http://www.leg.wa.gov

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Comments

[Sir Alto]

09:48 PM on 02/05/2012

Vivala revolution
enough said

[albert 18499]

06:42 PM on 02/02/2012

The religious right does not have the right to impose its morality on all others in this country. No religion has that right, and when they try to prevent equality of marriage, they use the argument based on their religion. Your religion is not the basis for the laws in this country. Jefferson says it best when it comes to everyone having equal rights.
The Constitution of the United States All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. (Thomas Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address," March 4, 1801; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 364.)
Thank you Washington for standing up for these equal rights.

[shirley thomas]

01:38 AM on 02/02/2012

glad to see that the state didn't allow religious nuts to stand in the way of progress and of doing what is right.

[theogsters]

11:37 AM on 02/02/2012

I could not have said it better myself. Well done.

[luieburger]

01:18 AM on 02/02/2012

I am proud to be a citizen of Washington. I believe marriage is a religious institution that the government should not recognize at all (essentially allowing anyone to create their own legal documents for whatever partnership they choose). However, if government is going to recognize and define marriage, it must be recognized and defined equally.

Ladies and gentlemen. Believe me. THE TIDE IS TURNING!

[LynnW49]

11:47 PM on 02/01/2012

Time to update this with the good news HP.

[Ioan Lightoller]

01:56 PM on 02/02/2012

I take it it passed? YAY!

[Mediorite]

11:25 PM on 02/01/2012

It's incredible how far the debate has shifted. The pro-equality voices in government have become so strong, clear, passionate, articulate, and reasoned.

The anti-gay voices have retreated to not even really defending their position, just their right to have it. It's a clear admission of defeat.

[Mediorite]

11:07 PM on 02/01/2012

Congratulations, Washington!!!

[EmmaDarian]

11:06 PM on 02/01/2012

Approved in the Senate. On to the House!

[Contact1972]

11:05 PM on 02/01/2012

JUST passed the Senate 28-21!

Now it's off to the House.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how respectful the debate was. Congress-take note.

[Ioan Lightoller]

09:24 PM on 02/01/2012

Apparently the voting has started...keeping my fingers crossed, all my GLBT brothers and sisters in Washington State.

[camanokat]

05:41 AM on 02/02/2012

It's guaranteed to pass! Hurray for all my GLBT friends! Proud to be a Washingtonian!

[Mediorite]

09:05 PM on 02/01/2012

Voting's beginning! Fingers crossed!

[EmmaDarian]

09:30 PM on 02/01/2012

Do you have a good source for updates?

[Contact1972]

11:05 PM on 02/01/2012

Passed the Senate 28-21

[Contact1972]

11:06 PM on 02/01/2012

Passed the Senate 28-21.

[lovingthismoment50]

06:49 PM on 02/01/2012

Yessssssss!!!!

Do it, Washington!

Makes the lives of some couples and families out there so much brighter!

[hsmachine]

05:44 PM on 02/01/2012

It's washington state after all it will go before the voters.

[kittkyle]

05:34 PM on 02/01/2012

Since when was marriage declared religious? It is a civil union period. Yes, some people get married by their pastor, priest etc. But more people are married by a judge.
Who cares who marries who?

[JohnJames]

06:00 PM on 02/01/2012

Let's just suppose marriage in this country weren't an entirely civil matter - the legally irrelevant option of a religious wedding aside. What then would the opponents of marriage equality do with those hundreds of churches that perform same-sex weddings these days? Force them to stop? As much as they may deny it their position against gay marriage on religious grounds is tantamount to government having to decide theological matters - a total breakdown of the separation of church and state as in the Middle Ages.

[albert 18499]

06:49 PM on 02/02/2012

Sorry man, there are plenty of churches out there who will marry same sex couples. The Supreme Court will not violate any church who doesn't want to marry same sex couples. That's because of the separation of church and state. The state doesn't dictate which church can or can't perform the marriages, and the church can't dictate its morality through laws of the state. Again, the separation of church and state.

[Sam D man]

05:04 PM on 02/01/2012

Heterophobia pandemic level 3 and escalating !!!!!!!!!!

[joeg2028]

07:56 PM on 02/01/2012

What in that story is heterophobic? Call me dense.

[Erin84]

09:28 PM on 02/01/2012

Anti-gay people are incapable of a truthful, rational argument against the legal option to marry for same sex couples, so they have to twist the terms of the existing argument to project their bad qualities on others. Gay people are not against straight people and he knows that. Most of our loved ones are straight, statistically, and plenty of straight people support same sex marriage. We have a beef with a specific kind of straight person, and also some self-loathing, closeted gays, who fight tooth and nail to keep inequality for gay couples without any rational reasoning. Then we especially hate when they try to twist it to make it look like they have the moral position, and they are the poor victims when anyone calls them out on their hypocrisy. "Heterophobe" is a ridiculous and hypocritical deflection. As evidence to my point: there is no movement among gays to make straight marriage illegal. No movement among gays to force people into gay marriage. The homophobes can't say the same about their views toward us.

[Contact1972]

11:06 PM on 02/01/2012

Huh?