Same-sex partnership bill passes in Washington State

Nearly a year after the Washington State supreme court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage, the state legislature in Olympia passed a measure to give gay and lesbian couples some of the rights that come with marriage. The measure passed 65–35 on Tuesday. The state senate approved the bill last month, and it now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it into law.

''It is an important step, I believe, for turning back the horrendous law that this legislature passed in 1998, to deny gay and lesbian families the right to marry,'' said state senator Ed Murray, who is one of five openly gay members of the legislature.

That 1998 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, restricts marriage to opposite-sex couples. A divided state supreme court upheld that law last July in a 5–4 decision, overruling two lower courts, which had found the same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

The domestic-partnership bill would create a means for same-sex couples to register their partnerships with the state and would grant them such rights as hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will.

To be registered, couples would have to share a home; neither partner could be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else; and both partners would have to be at least 18.

Unmarried heterosexual senior couples would also be eligible for domestic partnerships if one partner were at least 62. Lawmakers said that provision was included to help seniors who are at risk of losing pension rights and Social Security benefits if they remarry.

Opponents argued it was a ''marriage light'' bill that would dilute traditional marriage. ''We are chipping away at the very foundations of this institution and of society,'' said Republican state representative Bill Hinkle. ''This is taking us down a road we do not need to go.''

In December, New Jersey adopted civil unions for same-sex couples, joining Connecticut and Vermont. Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, while California has domestic partnerships that bring full state-level marriage rights. Hawaii has a reciprocal benefits law that gives same-sex partners some rights in areas of insurance, property, pensions, and hospital visitation. (Rachel La Corte, AP)