Same-sex rights might expand

Another battle over the rights of same-sex couples is headed to the state Legislature this year as activists try to expand rights available under Washington's 11/2-year-old domestic-partnership registry.

That registry has 4,892 couples with either two members of the same gender or one member who's 62 or older. Nearly 200 rights are included, including the right to hospital visits, inheriting through community property laws, and the power to make decisions about a loved one's remains.

Democratic Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle says he thinks it still is too early to push for full marriage rights, an effort that suffered setbacks at the polls in California, Arizona and Florida this fall. Leaders with Equal Rights Washington say also a Washington referendum could be premature, undoing any same-sex-marriage law that might pass in this state.

Murray instead plans to focus on adding rights to the partnership registry, which lawmakers created in 2007 as a step toward a long-range goal of "marriage equality." One draft of the rights bill is cumbersome, running close to 1,900 pages, and it deals with pensions, parenting issues and taxes.

"We view the domestic partnership as a multiyear process to engage the citizens and the Legislature in a discussion about what our families are about and what the issues are about," Murray said in an interview, adding that he plans to introduce a same-sex-marriage bill, as he does most years.

Opponents including the Faith and Freedom Network are getting ready to fight the domestic-partnership bill — as well as same-sex marriage, if Murray's other marriage-rights bill starts moving.

"If Ed Murray is able to coerce or somehow convince enough people to pass his bill, we first will lobby hard against it," said Gary Randall, a leader of Faith and Freedom. "But we also will mount a massive statewide effort to defeat it at the polls if it goes that far. … We're already organizing perchance that would happen. We are organizing a district-by-district effort to defeat it."

Randall said that granting rights to same-sex couples or allowing same-sex marriage harms the traditional institution of marriage, which he argues is vital to society and civilization.

He has been working with Republican state Sen. Dan Swecker of Rochester on opposing both the same-sex partnership and marriage efforts. Swecker has objections to same-sex marriage on religious grounds.

Murray and the Legislature's five other openly gay members are working with the gay community on a bill. He said the draft bill is extremely long because it needs to make multiple references to very specific language in the law.

Some pension-related pieces might fall out of the bill because they could have a fiscal effect in a year when budget cuts are the story of the day. Other issues are more generic and deal with such topics as fishing licenses.

"We haven't settled yet on a bill and a strategy," Murray said. "The pension part is about $1 million. There are some other tax issues, and those are in the tens of thousands. But it is a year when a lot of bills are going to die because of costs."

Friedes said Friday that he understands the state's budget predicament but also thinks gay and lesbian couples are not getting equal treatment in the law today from programs that help families — with health care and pensions, for instance.

He cautioned against dropping protections just because they might have a cost.

"As we go into this economic downturn, the bottom line is gay and lesbian families can no longer afford to subsidize other families and not get the same benefits," Friedes said.

Anna Schlecht, a lesbian and 30-year rights activist in Olympia, said she hopes activists can keep in mind there are other goals worth supporting in addition to civil rights. So activists should consider delaying requests for rights that carry a taxpayer cost.

"Not only are we concerned about gay rights, we are concerned about social services and about housing," Schlecht said. "I think this might not be the year to ask what Washington state can do for us, but what we can do for Washington state."

Brad Shannon is political editor for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.