Partnership
Bill
Passes in
Wash. State
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, April 11, 2007
OLYMPIA,
Wash.
-- Nearly a year after the state Supreme Court upheld
Washington's ban on same-sex marriage, the state
Legislature passed a measure to give gay and lesbian couples some of the rights
that come with marriage.
The measure passed 65-35 on
Tuesday. The state Senate approved the bill last month, and it now heads
to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it into law.
''It is an important step, I
believe, for turning back the horrendous law that this Legislature passed in
1998, to deny gay and lesbian families the right to marry,'' said state Sen. Ed
Murray, who is one of five openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature.
That 1998 law, the Defense of
Marriage Act, restricts marriage to unions between a man and a woman. A
divided state Supreme Court upheld that law last July in a 5-4 decision,
overruling two lower courts, which had found the same-sex marriage ban
unconstitutional.
The domestic partnership bill would
create a domestic partnership registry
with the state, and would provide enhanced rights for same-sex couples,
including hospital visitation rights,
the ability to authorize autopsies and organ
donations and inheritance rights
when there is no will.
To be registered, couples would
have to share a home, not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone
else, and be at least 18.
Unmarried,
heterosexual senior couples would also be eligible
for domestic partnerships if one partner were at least 62. Lawmakers said
that provision was included to help seniors who are at risk of losing pension
rights and Social Security benefits if they remarry.
Opponents argued it was a
''marriage light'' bill that would dilute traditional marriage.
''We are chipping away at the very
foundations of this institution and of society,'' said Republican state Rep.
Bill Hinkle. ''This is taking us down a road we do not need to go.''
In December,
New Jersey adopted civil unions for same-sex couples, joining
Connecticut and Vermont.
Massachusetts
allows gay couples to marry, while
California
has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights. Hawaii
has a reciprocal benefits law that gives same-sex partners some rights, in areas
of insurance, property, pension and hospital visitation.
(Emphasis added.)
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