Protections for same-sex couples clear major legislative hurdle

OLYMPIA – Legislation providing legal protections for the thousands of same-sex couples in Washington cleared a major legislative hurdle today when it passed the state Senate.

According to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, popular support for the proposal is strong.

“The public’s attitude toward gays and lesbians is changing, and it’s changing in our favor,” said Murray. A public opinion poll conducted by independent pollster Stuart Elway in early February found nearly 60 percent of Washington voters approve of same-sex domestic partnership rights.

Murray, the only openly gay member of the Senate and the just second openly gay senator in state history, said it also helps to have a gay lawmaker in the Legislature’s upper chamber.

“It took us thirty years to protect gays and lesbians from legal discrimination in employment and housing,” said Murray, who is the first gay senator to speak on the Senate floor on an issue affecting gays and lesbians. “We’re very close to securing domestic partnership rights for gay and lesbian families in just our first year of trying.”

Senate Bill 5336 creates a state domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples, and confers certain legal protections to registered domestic partners, including hospital visitation rights, the right to make health care decisions for an incapacitated loved one, the right to make funeral arrangements funerals and inheritance rights when there is no will.

There are over four hundred rights connected with marriage that are not addressed in SB 5336, including the right not to testify against a spouse, the right to health and pension benefits, and hundreds protections related to children and family law.

Murray said marriage remains the ultimate goal, but that it also presents a larger challenge.

“In 1998, the Legislature stood in the doorway of justice and blocked gay and lesbian families’ right to marriage by passing the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act,” said Murray. “In 2006, the state Supreme Court again denied us marriage equality by upholding that discriminatory law.”

Murray said the gay and lesbian community’s dialogue with the public is an ongoing one.

“We’re going to continue bringing forth legislation to highlight the many rights and protections associated with marriage,” said Murray. “We’re going illustrate just how much harm our DOMA law inflicts on loving families. It’s our great hope that, through this effort, the day will come when the public agrees it’s only fair to allow gay and lesbian people to marry, and I believe that day will come soon.”

SB 5336 passed on a 28-19 vote. It now moves to the House of Representatives, where a similar measure has more cosponsors than the number of votes needed for passage.

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