Source: Olympian
Gay and lesbian partners in Washington shouldn't expect full marriage equality to be enacted in the 2009 legislature, but should expect to see more rights and responsibilities added to the state's existing domestic partnership law, Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) told Brad Shannon, political editor of the Olympian in an interview.
"We view the domestic partnership as a multiyear process to engage the citizens and the Legislature in a discussion about what our families are about and what the issues are about," Murray said in the interview, adding that he plans to introduce a same-sex-marriage bill, as he does most years, but doesn't plan to push it this year.
Lawmakers created domestic partnerships in 2007 as a step toward what they said at the time was a long-range goal of marriage equality.
Murray and the legislature's five other openly gay members are working with the gay community on a bill to expand coverage of the partnerships. The current version of this year's bill -- dealing with pensions, parenting issues, and taxes -- is a cumbersome 1,900 pages, the Olympian reports.
Murray: WA domestic partnerships could be expanded in '09 [contd.]
Murray told the Olympia paper that the draft bill is so long because it needs to make multiple references to very specific language in the pension law. Other issues are more generic and deal with such topics as fishing licenses, according to the Olympian.
But some parts of the bill -- particularly the pension-related pieces -- might fall out of the bill because they could have a fiscal effect in a year when budget cuts are the story of the day.
"We haven't settled yet on a bill and a strategy," Murray told the Olympian. "The pension part is about $1 million. There are some other tax issues, and those are in the tens of thousands. But it is a year when a lot of bills are going to die because of costs."
Josh Friedes, advocacy director of the state's largest LGBT advocacy group, Equal Rights Washington, told the Olympian Friday that he understands the state's budget predicament but also thinks gay and lesbian couples are not getting equal treatment in the law today from programs that help families -- with health care and pensions, for instance.
He cautioned against dropping protections just because they might have a cost.
Source: Same-sex rights might expand | The Olympian
Last modified: 25 Apr 09 07:07
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