By Laura DeKoven Waxman
February 13, 2012

Washington State is poised to become the seventh state to allow same-sex marriages. Legislation passed the State Senate 28-21 on February 1 and the House 55-43 on February 8. Governor Christine Gregoire supported the measure and is expected to sign it quickly into law. The bill:

• Allows couples of the same sex to marry;

• Provides an exemption for religious organizations regarding solemnizing a marriage and providing accommodations, goods, and services related to the solemnization or celebration of a marriage; and

• Provides that a state registered domestic partnership in which the parties are the same sex and under the age of 62 will be merged into a marriage as of June 30, 2014, unless the parties marry or dissolve their domestic partnership before that date.

During a January 20 press conference at The U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, which launched Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said the measure appeared to be about one vote short in the State Senate and urged senators “to do the right thing and pass marriage equality in Washington State.”

“The denial of marriage withholds not only the personal significance and social recognition that comes with marriage, but it deprives same sex couples of the critical legal and economic safety that marriage brings,” Strickland said. “This is about equal protection of the law; this is about civil rights; it’s about who we are as a nation, and the values we hold dear.” Strickland called the denial of marriage “one of the harshest inequalities inflicted upon lesbian and gay Americans and their families and it is discrimination enacted by our own government.”

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 7 struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause by stigmatizing a minority group without legitimate reason. “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships as inferior to those of opposite'sex couples,” the ruling read. Proposition 8, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, was a statewide California ballot initiative adopted in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote.

Conference of Mayors President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa called the decision “a decisive victory for freedom and equality.” In a statement issued the day of the ruling he said, “Today, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals validated what we know in our heart of hearts: that all Americans enjoy the basic right to marry the person they love. With its decision, the court has affirmed the fundamental dignity of gays and lesbians and has reaffirmed a basic American truth: bigotry and prejudice have no place in our laws.”

“If we truly believe in family values, we must value all families,” Villaraigosa continued. “I fully expect that this issue will reach the US Supreme Court. I am hopeful that the highest court in our land will follow the wisdom of the 9th Circuit and grant all couples – gay and straight – the freedom to marry.”

Proposition 8 came about in reaction to a California Supreme Court decision earlier in 2008, which struck down a 1977 state law that had limited marriage to a man and a woman. That decision found the law to be in violation of the state constitution’s privacy, due-process, and equal-protection provisions, and paved the way for same-sex marriages to take place in the state.

The Ninth Circuit ruling applies only to California and does not immediately take effect. Proposition 8 supporters have two weeks to appeal to the full circuit court and 90 days to file a petition for Supreme Court review.