Washington State Tribe Approves Same-Sex Marriage

Now even American Indian tribes are pulling ahead of the Commonwealth of Virginia and most of the USA when it comes to recognizing same sex marriage, Here in Virginia, pet ownership gets more recognition that committed life relations between LGBT couples. Not so with Washington State's Suquamish Tribe which has voted to approve same sex marriages on the Tribe's lands. If one member of a couple is a member of the Tribe, the couple can now be married and afforded all the rights heterosexual couples are allowed on the reservation. Here are highlights from the Kitsap Sun:
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[T]he Suquamish Tribal Council formally changed its ordinances to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. The Suquamish ordinance means gay couples are afforded all the rights heterosexual couples are allowed on the reservation and other places in which gay marriages are allowed.
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Purser, a 28-year-old who lives in Seattle but was raised in Kitsap County, has been trying to get the tribe's law changed for about four years. She made the most progress at the tribe's general council in March. During that meeting of the tribe's entire enrolled membership, she stepped to the microphone asking for recognition for gay couples. The tribe's leadership said they would continue to consider it, she said. When Purser sat down people around her told her she needed to get up again and request a vote of the entire audience. If there were any dissenters, they were not loud enough for Purser to hear them. "Really it was the Suquamish people who approved this," she said. "
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The Tribal Council held a public hearing on the ordinance change in June and formally adopted it in a unanimous vote Monday. The new law allows the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, "regardless of their sex," if they at least 18 years old and at least one of them is an enrolled member of the Suquamish Tribe.
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In 2009 the Coquille Indian Tribe in Coos Bay, Ore., became what many believed to be the first Indian tribe to marry a gay couple, two women from Edmonds, Wash.
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Michelle Hansen, Suquamish Tribal attorney, said the Suquamish ordinance does not have effect anywhere else unless that jurisdiction decides to recognize same-sex marriages conducted elsewhere. The unanimity seen in Suquamish has not been evident elsewhere in the country.