Initiative Recognizes Same-Sex Marriages Plan Counters Conservatives’ Effort To Deny Rights To Some Couples

The state would legally recognize same-sex marriages under a proposed ballot initiative filed Monday, only days after conservative lawmakers began working on a bill to ban recognition of such unions.

Zakmichael Tazmon of Seattle outlined his proposed initiative in documents filed with the state. He must gather the signatures of 181,667 registered voters by July 5 to get his proposal on the November ballot.

The initiative reads: “A marriage shall be recognized as a legal marriage when the parties are persons of a different or of the same gender. Any marriage that is valid in another jurisdiction shall be recognized as a valid marriage in this state.”

Tazmon did not immediately return a telephone message Monday afternoon.

His proposal runs counter to a bill supported by conservative lawmakers in the state House.

Rep. Bill Thompson, R-Everett, filed a bill to ban same-sex marriages in Washington out of concern that Hawaii courts may legalize them as early as this summer.

If that happens, Thompson said last week, gay couples in Washington could get married in Hawaii and return home expecting the same privileges afforded heterosexual married couples, such as health benefits and inheritance rights.

The Republican-led House is expected to pass the bill, following its approval last week by the Law and Justice Committee. Senate approval is unlikely.

In other developments Monday in Olympia:

Charter schools

Charter school legislation was nearly derailed in the House by an unlikely coalition of urban liberals and conservative skeptics.

The measure, which parallels a citizen initiative, barely survived a key test vote Monday, passing 16-15 from the House Appropriations Committee.

The plan’s future remains in doubt, said House Education Chairman Bill Brumsickle, R-Centralia, a supporter.

“People are concerned about the implications of suspending so many state rules and regulations, eroding of local school boards’ authority and having a separate state charter school board,” he said.

The committee vote capped a weekend of heavy lobbying by the Washington Education Association and other critics, and by supporters, including Fawn and Jim Spady, co-chairmen of the Initiative 177 campaign.

The bill, HB2910, is similar to the initiative. Both would allow local nonprofit groups of teachers, parents and others to ask a school district to charter one or more publicly funded but independently operated schools.

The bill would permit unlimited numbers of charter schools and would create a state chartering agency to handle applications that are rejected.

The Senate Education Committee is considering a greatly scaled-back proposal that would authorize a five-year experiment, involving no more than 27 schools statewide. The Spadys, who have endorsed the House bill, say the Senate bill is unacceptable and probably wouldn’t result in a single charter school.

Capital punishment

The state House has voted to make lethal injection and not hanging the state’s preferred method of execution.

The bill passed 90-6 Monday with little debate.

A similar measure cleared the Senate last week. Gov. Mike Lowry has said he will sign the legislation.

“It’s fair. It’s reasonable. It’s humane,” said Rep. Steve Hargrove, R-Poulsbo, the bill’s sponsor. “Who says you have to be brutal in what you do? I think people want justice more than vengeance.”

Only Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, spoke against the proposal and the death penalty in general.

“The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime,” Murray said. “It does not save the state money.”

Switching to lethal injection instead of hanging has been considered for several years by lawmakers, but some feared the switch would give current death row inmates new fuel for appeals. Others have commented that the noose is a better punishment than the needle.

But Attorney General Christine Gregoire says the state has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending the death penalty in appeals by inmates who say hanging is cruel and unusual punishment.