Source: SeattlePI.com, Kirkland Reporter, Spokesman Review, NW Progressive Advocate

A slow and deliberate effort by Washington legislators to recognize nearly equal partnership rights for gay and lesbian couples took a significant step yesterday when the legislature in Olympia approved a bill that grants to registered domestic partners in the state virtually all the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by couples who can get married.

“This is an elegant and fair piece of legislation,” said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. “This is about people who love each other.”

This year’s bill adds hundreds of rights and responsibilities to a domestic partnership law adopted in 2007. It passed the house on a 62-35 vote, following a 30-18 in the state Senate several weeks ago.

"This bill is about justice," Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said prior to the House vote. "This bill completes our work with domestic partnerships."

Washington legislature passes law giving domestic partners ‘everything but marriage’ [contd.]

“My God tells me that the most important commandment above all others is to love your neighbor as yourself,” said state Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo “… By approving this bill today, we say to people in this state, ‘We love you and you’re protected.’ ”

Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she will sign the measure. "This legislation will expand basic benefits, provide better financial security and ensure equal treatment for domestic partners living in Washington state," Gregoire said in a statement. "Our state is one that thrives on diversity. We have to respect and protect all of the families that make up our communities."

One of the chief sponsors of the bill, Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle), is the highest-ranking openly gay elected official in the state. Arguing in favor of the bill last month, he urged legislators to extend the rights of heterosexual married couples to domestic partnerships, which are not defined by sexual orientation.

The original domestic partnership law, introduced by Murray two years ago, provided inheritance rights in cases where there was no will, hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations.

In addition to same-sex couples, the state also allows senior-citizen heterosexual couples to register. That provision was aimed at couples who cannot marry because they’d lose pension benefits linked to a deceased spouse, Spokesman Review reports.

The new domestic partnership bill adds domestic partners to all remaining areas of state law where now only married couples are addressed -- statutes ranging from employment to pensions. Some of the changes to current law include increased rights for domestic partners to claim survivorship rights in pensions and tax benefits enjoyed by married couples, according to Kirkland Reporter.

The new law grants to domestic partners “Any privilege, immunity, right, benefit, or responsibility” granted or imposed by the state’s marriage laws, rules, and regulations.

New Jersey, California, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have laws that either recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that afford same-sex couples similar rights to marriage. Five other states offer more limited partnership rights to gay and lesbian couples.

Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts have recognized full marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. Same-sex marriage was legal in California for five months until a state referendum to ban it passed last fall.

Bills to allow same-sex marriage are currently before lawmakers in New Hampshire, Maine, New York and New Jersey.

Wednesday’s vote was largely along party lines, Spokesman Review reports. One Democrat, Federal Way’s Mark Miloscia, voted no. Two Republicans -- Yakima’s Norm Johnson and College Place’s Maureen Walsh -- voted yes.

Republicans offered several unsuccessful amendments, hoping to draw a distinction between domestic partnerships and marriage, the Seattle PI reports. Opponents of the domestic partner bill claimed it will lead to legalized same-sex marriage in Washington.

The House defeated several Republican efforts to attach bad amendments to the bill. Among the changes that were rejected was an attempt by Rep. Jay Rodne, R-North Bend turn the bill into a referendum .

"This has never really been about extension of rights," Rodne asserted , according to the PI. "It has been about marriage."

Another GOP amendment attempted to insert language into the bill that would have force schools to instruct students that marriage is only for heterosexual couples, according to NW Progressive Institute.

In 2006, a sharply divided state Supreme Court upheld Washington's law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, rejecting the argument of 19 same-sex couples that they've been unfairly denied the right to wed. But the court also recommended that the legislature address issues of inequality that the justices said were made worse by the law.

More than 5,000 domestic partnership registrations have been filed since July 2007.

Source: Lawmakers pass expanded domestic partner rights | SeattlePI.com
Same-sex rights approved by Washington House | Spokesman Review
Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill passes; Governor expected to sign | Kirkland Reporter
State House sends domestic partnership expansion legislation to Governor Gregoire | Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate