Huckleberries Online

EOO: Same-Sex Partners Gain Rights

Posted by DFO

March 11, 2009 9:59 a.m. • 23 comments

Two years after Washington launched a controversial domestic partners registry for same-sex couples, the state Senate late Tuesday voted to grant the partners virtually all the rights of spouses — except marriage. “You have denied us that right,” Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who is gay, told his fellow senators. “Do not deny us the right to care for our families and to build our lives.” Largely along party lines, the Senate voted 30-18 in favor of the bill. It now goes to the state House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Gov. Chris Gregoire hasn’t said whether she’ll sign the bill, but has said she supports such rights for same-sex couples/Rich Roesler, Eye On Olympia. More here.

Question: Do you support the action by the Washington Legislature to give same-sex couples all the rights of traditional marriage, but marriage itself?

23 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

toadman on March 11 at 10:11 a.m.
I support this action. The government should be out of the marriage business altogether, anyway. All domestic partners who desire it should have the same legal rights, however.
hmoffsuite on March 11 at 10:20 a.m.
Yes, I support that
Frum Helen Back on March 11 at 11:13 a.m.
If gay couples can have the same rights as a married couple, then let them get married too. The state IS involved in the marriage process. You can’t get married without a license and the Justice of the Peace can marry a couple. If churches don’t want to marry a gay couple in their church, that’s their prerogative.
JeanieSpokane on March 11 at 11:28 a.m.
I support it.
LukeB on March 11 at 11:55 a.m.
The state shouldn’t have anything to do with the word “marriage” - civil unions for all.
BethB on March 11 at 11:59 a.m.
I agree with LukeB. The word marriage is connected to the religious ceremony. If you took the law and made the legal documents all read civil unions, then the churches can choose what they want to do with the ceremony part.
toadman on March 11 at 12:08 p.m.
That’s what I meant with my comment…what LukeB said. I wasn’t able to say it well enough though.

Marriage is a term laden with too much opinion and baggage to be useful as a legal term.
florined on March 11 at 12:11 p.m.
What LukeB said.
OrangeTV on March 11 at 1:15 p.m.
I think this is a very fine arrangement, and a good model for other states. I’m not especially a fan of marriage gay, straight, or otherwise. With few glorious exceptions, marriage these days is a fuzzy sham.
Stickman on March 11 at 7:39 p.m.
As again, as always, I’m with Toad. We must see eye to eye on many issues, and I’m glad.
Sam on March 11 at 7:59 p.m.
There is nothing civil about the union between me and The Lovely Kathryn, who is very proud of her nickname the “Iron Fist.”
Cindy_H on March 11 at 8:12 p.m.
Oh. Sam. TMI!

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.