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)
