-
- Wash. state’s gay lawmakers won’t stop until same-sex marriage is legalized
- Maine adult adoption case raises issues for same-sex couples
- Top Manhattan restaurant hit with discrimination suit
- Clergy not required to perform civil unions in N.J., state says
- Sides call for civility in Massachusetts same-sex marriage debate
- Romney says he was ‘wrong’ for moderate stands in 1994 Senate race
- National News Briefs
- World News Briefs
national
Wash. state’s gay lawmakers won’t stop until same-sex marriage is legalized
Legislators say they’re willing to start with domestic partnerships if necessary
Published Thursday, 18-Jan-2007 in issue 995
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – The Legislature’s five openly gay lawmakers are unabashed about what they want their end result to be: full marriage rights for same-sex couples. But they’re willing to take the long way there if necessary.
“We are here and we’re not going to go away until we have achieved marriage equality for everyone in the state,” said Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle. “But we recognize at the same time that we have a great deal of work to do to get the state and Legislature ready for that promise of full equality.”
So, while supporters of same-sex marriage will continue to push for a repeal of the law that currently bans it, they also will seek an incremental approach that will allow same-sex couples some of the benefits that come with marriage.
Two bills were announced at a news conference Jan. 11: one to allow same-sex marriage, the other calling for domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples. Similar to California law, unmarried heterosexual senior couples would be eligible for domestic partnerships under the latter measure.
Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, said that while marriage is ultimately the goal, the partnerships are necessary now in order to “provide some remedy, some relief and some humanity to couples until they can marry and enjoy the full rights and benefits.”
“We know the legislative process is incremental,” he said. “We don’t achieve our ultimate goal in the first year.”
Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said that he has had “positive responses” from House and Senate leaders and Gov. Chris Gregoire on the partnership bill. Afterward, Murray said Gregoire has been silent on the issue of same-sex marriage. Gregoire’s spokesperson, Holly Armstrong, said the governor had not yet seen the proposals.
Also speaking at the news conference were Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver and Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, along with representatives from several gay rights groups.
To be registered under the proposed domestic partnership bill, couples would have to share a home, not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 18.
All domestic partnerships would be registered with the secretary of state, and the rights would include hospital visitation, the ability to consent to autopsies and authorize organ and tissue donation, and inheritance rights when there is no will.
Pedersen, newly elected to Murray’s old seat in the House, said lawmakers decided to include senior heterosexual couples because they are “particularly vulnerable because of the possibility of losing pension rights and losing Social Security benefits if they remarry.”
Opponents argue that even the domestic partnership bill would erode traditional marriage.
“Individuals can choose to live how they want to,” said Cheryl Haskins, executive director of Allies for Marriage & Children. “No one is talking about telling people how to live. We’re talking about what we want to promote as a society. We want to be supportive of things that uphold marriage.”
The state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage in a 5-4 decision last July, ruling that state lawmakers were justified in restricting marriage to unions between a man and woman. The high court overruled two lower courts, which had found the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
However, three of the justices writing in the majority invited the Legislature to take another look at the same-sex marriage ban’s effect on same-sex couples.
Last month, New Jersey adopted civil unions for same-sex couples, joining Connecticut and Vermont in allowing such unions. Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry, while California has domestic partnerships that bring full state marriage rights.
Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, is pushing a constitutional amendment this year to affirm traditional marriage, a proposal unlikely to succeed since Democrats have overwhelming control of both the House and the Senate.
Swecker said that the domestic partnership bill worries him as well, saying that “it’s a significant step toward creating an alternative to traditional marriage for heterosexual couples.”
He said that by allowing one group of heterosexual seniors to be allowed to benefit, it opens the door for lawsuits from other age groups who might not want to get married but want some of the limited benefits that the measure provides.
“The one thing I want to protect more than anything else in all of this is traditional marriage,” he said.
Murray has introduced same-sex marriage measures before, but none have received a hearing. He spearheaded a gay civil-rights bill that became law last year after nearly 30 years of failure in the Legislature.
That measure, which took effect in July, added “sexual orientation” to a state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment, insurance and credit.
Murray said he does not believe it will take decades before same-sex couples are allowed to marry.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a long time,” he said. “This is not 1977. This is not the civil rights bill.”
|
|
Copyright © 2003-2025 Uptown Publications
