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Senate sends same-sex bill to House

Legislation would allow domestic partnerships; opponents call measure threat to marriage

By RACHEL LA CORTE | The Associated Press • Published March 02, 2007

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The lone Republican to vote for the bill was Sen. Dale Brandland of Bellingham. He didn't speak to his vote during the floor debate but later said he was affected by the story of Kathryn Fleming, who died in December after she became trapped by rising water in her basement studio in Seattle.

Her partner, Charlene Strong, told lawmakers during public hearings about how she was initially barred from the hospital room and later encountered obstacles in trying to donate Fleming's retinas and in planning the funeral.

"I started thinking about my law enforcement career and people that I know, and I started thinking to myself how would I like that if one of those people got injured and their domestic partner couldn't get up to see them," Brandland said. "I just couldn't do that."

The Senate rejected an amendment put forth by Republicans that would have required a public vote before the legislation took effect.

The move by the Legislature comes nearly a year after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington's ban on same-sex marriage in a 5-4 decision, ruling that state lawmakers were justified in passing the 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which restricts marriage to unions between a man and woman.

"You have prevented us from marrying. Please do not prevent us from caring for each other," Murray said during the floor debate.

A constitutional amendment this year to affirm traditional marriage offered by Republican lawmakers died in committee this week.

Murray previously spearheaded a gay civil-rights bill that became law last year after nearly 30 years of failure in the Legislature. That measure added "sexual orientation" to a state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment, insurance and credit on the basis of such characteristics as race and religion. Another measure introduced by Murray this year that would have allowed same-sex marriage died in committee Wednesday.

Opponents said the domestic partnership bill is just another step toward same-sex marriage.