Democratic Rep. Jamie Pedersen of Seattle plans to hold a hearing on the bill in House Judiciary at 8 a.m. Monday and move the bill to a floor vote as soon as Wednesday afternoon. Aarly version of our story for Thursday's print editions of the papers is here.
ORIGINAL 4 p.m. post: State Rep. Laurie Jinkins is among the very, very interested bystanders on hand at the Capitol tonight for the state Senate’s historic vote to legalize same-sex marriage. Six hours before the 6 p.m. vote, the Tacoma Democrat and gay-rights advocate said she is “numb” and doesn’t know for sure if she and allies will get their way.
“One thing I’ve learned here is 6 hours is a long time,” Jinkins, a Tacoma Democrat and lesbian, said in the Rotunda when I ran into her during the lunch hour. That said, 23 Democrats and two Republicans in the Senate have already said they are voting for the bill. And additional lawmakers may move over to support Senate Bill 6239.
Not that Jinkins expects defections. “Some of those who’ve made their positions public are some of our strongest supporters now,” she said, adding: “I think we’ve addressed all the issues and it’ll be a celebration” later in the evening.
Certainly, leaders in Washington United for Marriage, a pro-gay coalition, think so. They have planned a party at the Urban Onion restaurant in Olympia for 7:30 p.m.
Meantime, five amendments to the bill have been offered – three by first-term Republican Joe Fain of Auburn. Of Fain’s:
**Another says that “no state agency or local government may base a decision to penalize, withhold benefits from, or refuse to contract with any religious organization” based on its refusal to conduct marriages for same-sex couples,
**And the other replaces references to “religious denomination” to say “religious organization.”
Democratic Sen. Brian Hatfield, previously listed as a likely no vote, has an amendment to send the bill out to a November vote as a referendum.
And Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the conservative Democrat who became the 25th vote a week ago, has an amendment to further clarify that rules pertaining to religious groups that provide adoption and foster care services would not be affected.
Opponents of same-sex marriage are angling to fight the law at the ballot box – just as they tried to do in 2009 and failed with Referendum 71, the “everything but marriage” law that expanded rights under the state’s domestic partnership law.
Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, said he’s hearing that some lawmakers publicly in favor of SB 6239 “are having second thoughts” today.
Meantime, Randall has been involved in talks with faith-based groups that would support an initiative or referendum challenge to whatever passes. Catholics, Mormons and evangelical Christian groups are on board, and Republican Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley is one lawmaker expected to take a lead role in their group, Randall said.
Randall also said pro-gay advocates have overestimated the public’s support for same-sex marriage. “There is a more than 5,000 year history to marriage,” he said, adding that lawmakers expressing second thoughts would be “reasonable – this is so unnatural and unusual with human history.”
Whatever happens later, tonight’s vote moves Washington closer to being the seventh state to recognize same-sex marriages. And with R-71, Washington showed it can be a leader on gay rights.
Voters’ support for R-71 meant that the Legislature’s latest bill expanding domestic-partnership rights took effect. It was the third step of a three-year process to create and expand the state’s domestic partnership registry with all of the state rights of marriage without actually recognizing marriage.
More importantly, R-71 marked the first time voters in a state upheld relationship rights for same-sex couples. Until then, opponents of same-sex rights pointed often to public votes in numerous jurisdictions around the country.
“I think that the public opinion is shifting dramatically on these issues,” spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., said today. “We would see some of those outcomes just a few years ago be different were those votes held today. That was part of the strategy of those who opposed marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Seeing the writing on the wall, they rushed to the ballot to enshrine these kinds of bans in their constitutions so as to forestall progress.”
Cole-Schwartz added: “But Washington does stand out for approving Ref. 71 – in that it served as a marker that times are changing and people are open to recognizing gay couples and deserving of the same rights and protections as everyone else.’’
Democratic Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle is expected to meet with reporters later this afternoon. He still has to get SB 6239 passed tonight, pass it again in the House in the coming weeks, get Gov. Chris Gregoire’s promised signature – then deal with any ballot challenges.
But Cole-Schwartz said the experience of R-71 is a factor in favor of gay-marriage supporters. That is because having approved the law, voters have seen it at work “for a while. They haven’t experienced the gloom and doom scenarios that were forecast. It gives a really tangible experience for judging those [opponents’] claims.’’
Stay tuned.
FIRST UPDATE on 4 p.m. post to correct misspelling of Cole-Schwartz's name.
