Recognizing gay and lesbian families

By Sen. Ed Murray

Just imagine your spouse in the hospital, dying. Now imagine that you are not allowed to enter your spouse’s room to comfort him or her. Imagine your spouse has died, and you are prohibited from making the funeral arrangements, or planning to be buried next to your spouse in the future. Imagine losing the home you and your spouse have built together because your spouse did not create a will, and you are unable to inherit that property.

Like any two people in such a relationship, nothing is more important to the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian families in Washington than their families. Yet, the humiliating and hurtful scenarios above are just a few examples of the harm that gay and lesbian families must endure because state law doesn’t recognize their relationships.

In fact, rights and protections based on marital status are found in at least 423 state statutes, and most are denied to same-sex families. Senate Bill 5336, of which I one of many sponsors, would begin to change that. The bill would offer same-sex domestic partners a few of the legal protections that come with marriage, such as rights regarding health care decision-making, hospital visitation, and death and inheritance issues.

I respect the difference of opinion that people in our state have about this issue. And, as a Roman Catholic, I respect the fact that many hold this difference of opinion because of their strong religious beliefs.

First, ours is a civil, not religious, effort – a distinction of considerable importance. Second, those whose faith was formed by the Judeo-Christian tradition know we are called to do the work of justice. I believe that, as more people of faith hear the stories of the hurt gay and lesbian families currently endure by law, justice will demand they, too, take a step to end it.

The Washington State Catholic Conference opposes my effort, claiming it’s discriminatory unless it provides similar protections to, for example, siblings living together. But blood relatives already have the legal ability to care for one another that my bill seeks to extend to gay and lesbian families.

The lesbian and gay community has been honest that we hope the debate over domestic partnership will both provided needed protections for our families in the short term and lead to the full protections that only marriage can provide. The fact that the Catholic Conference has never in its long history of lobbying in Olympia pursued domestic partnership for relatives or care givers raises questions about their strategy.

After all, while I can think of no organization that stands up in Olympia for the poor, immigrants and those on the margins of society as the Catholic Conference does, this has not been true regarding its treatment of gays and lesbians. The Catholic Conference has a history of standing in the way of legislation that benefits gays and lesbians. It has used derogatory terms to characterize the gay and lesbian community, and has even gone so far as to accuse gays and lesbians for the pedophilia problem within its own priesthood.

This is nothing but an attempt to distract attention from the real issue. State law is telling the thousands of gay and lesbian families in Washington they are simply not families, and this is causing real harm. We need to affirm the struggles of gay and lesbian families and end this harm.

Editor’s note: Sen. Ed Murray represents the 43rd Legislative District in Seattle.

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