Washington State Gov. Gregoire Supports Gay Marriage Bill

As I have noted before, two of my children now live in Washington State - a place the Boyfriend and I plan to visit later this year. In some ways Washington State is a polar opposite of Virginia. Washington is pretty progressive while in Virginia the Republican Party of Virginia wants to drag the state back to the Dark Ages. And in terms of gay rights, in Virginia LGBT citizens are the modern day balcks in terms of state backed legal discrimination. In Washington State, gays already have rights that are only dreamed of in Virginia. And now, Washington State's governor, Christine Gregoire (pictured at left) , has vowed to back a gay marriage bill to bring full equality to LGBT citizens in that state. The Seattle Times looks at the issue and here are some highlights:

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Chris Gregoire is publicly supporting legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington state, saying Wednesday that she came to the decision after several years of battling her own uncertainty on the issue. . . . "It has been a battle for me with my religion," said Gregoire, who is Catholic.

The Democrat previously had supported efforts to expand the state's current law on domestic partner rights for gay couples, but had not come out in favor of full marriage rights. "I've always been uncomfortable with the position I took publicly," she said. "Then I came to realize, the religions can decide what they want to do, but it's not OK for the state to discriminate."

The state's underlying domestic partnership law, which the Legislature passed in 2007, provided hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will. Under state law, senior heterosexual couples can register as domestic partnerships as well.

In 2009, the Legislature passed, and voters later upheld, a bill that greatly expanded those rights and was known as the "everything-but-marriage" bill. Nearly 19,000 people in Washington are registered as domestic partners.

Democratic Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle, a gay lawmaker . . . . acknowledged that it would be a tough battle in the Senate, where Democrats hold a 27-22 majority, but where some conservative Democrats have voted with Republicans in opposition to the state's domestic partnership law.

"We're not there yet," he said. "We're a few votes short, but I think we can get there." Democrats hold a 56-42 majority in the House. Two of the more conservative members of the Senate Democratic caucus expressed reservations about the measure on Wednesday.

Gregoire called the idea of delaying action because of a challenging budget situation "reprehensible." "The idea that we would say to someone, I'm sorry, we're going to continue to discriminate and deny you equality because we have a budget problem ... that makes no sense to me," she said.

Not surprisingly, the Roman Catholic Church - while still demonstrating in instances literally all around the world that it favors child rapists over children and youths - is opposing the same sex marriage bill.