Same-sex Marriage In Washington State

Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in the U.S. state of Washington since December 6, 2012. On February 13, 2012, Governor Christine Gregoire signed legislation that established full marriage rights for same-sex couples in the state of Washington. Opponents mounted a challenge that required voters to approve the statute at a referendum, which they did on November 6. The law took effect on December 6, and the first marriages were performed on December 9. Within a couple of days, more than 600 marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples in King County alone. Washington was the seventh U.S. state, and the eighth U.S. jurisdiction (after the District of Columbia), to legalize same-sex marriages.

Previously, in 1998, the state had enacted House Bill 1130 that restricted marriage to different-sex couples, reinforcing its statutes which had been interpreted by a state court in 1974 as imposing the same restriction. Several lawsuits filed in state court challenged the state's marriage laws without success, including one filed in 1971, one of the first such cases in the United States.

Statutory ban

In September of 1996, in response to events in Hawaii - including the '' Baehr v. Miike'' decision - which suggested that the state might legalize same-sex marriage, the United States passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman and explicitly permitted states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted by other states.

In conjunction with dozens of other states as part of a nation-wide legal panic following the events in Hawaii, in February of 1997 the Washington State Legislature passed a bill that defined marriage as the "union of a man and a woman" and denied legal recognition to same-sex marriages established elsewhere. The vote was 63 to 35 in the House and 27 to 19 in the Senate. Governor Gary Locke vetoed the legislation on February 21, calling it "divisive and unnecessary", citing the 1974 state court decision in '' Singer v. Hara''. He wrote in his veto message: "Our overarching principle should be to promote civility, mutual respect and unity. This legislation fails to meet this test." An attempt to override his veto failed in the Senate on a party-line vote, 26 to 20, when seven Democrats who had originally supported the measure changed their position to support Governor Locke. Although Republicans threatened to put the issue to a popular referendum in November, some of their members thought the issue was not urgent enough to risk a contentious public campaign.

In February of 1998 the State Legislature passed the same legislation as House Bill 1130, and expected Governor Locke to allow it to become law without his signature. Instead, he vetoed it a second time, saying that "our laws right now prohibit same-gender marriages, and I oppose this legislation because it is trying to make illegal something that is already illegal". Democrats who feared the impact of having the legislation on the November ballot helped override his veto. One Democratic leader in the House, Marlin Appelwick, said: "I'll vote to override. I'll stand up and say it's a bad bill, but it's even worse to have this issue on the ballot." According to ''The Seattle Times'': "Lawmakers, eager to be done with the controversial issue, rushed the ban through in minutes and dumped it in the governor's lap. Locke's veto came within the hour. Then both houses voted summarily to override the veto. No one could remember the last time a bill was passed, vetoed and overridden within hours–with almost no discussion and no debate."

Lawsuits

''Singer v. Hara''

In 1971, in Seattle, in one of the first same-sex marriage lawsuits in the United States, gay activists John Singer (later known as Faygele Ben-Miriam) and Paul Barwick requested a marriage license from the King County Auditor, Lloyd Hara, to demonstrate the inequality between gay and heterosexual couples. Hara refused, and Singer and Barwick brought suit on the grounds that the denial violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the State Constitution. The Washington Court of Appeals denied the claim in 1974 in ''Singer v. Hara'', and the Washington Supreme Court later refused to review the decision.

''Andersen v. King County''

On March 8, 2004, six same-sex couples represented by Lambda Legal filed suit in state court challenging the constitutionality of Washington's ''Defense of Marriage Act''. The four constitutional claims were based on due process, privacy, equal protection and gender equality. On August 4, King County Superior Court Judge William L. Downing issued an opinion in ''Andersen v. Sims'' that the state had no rational basis for excluding same-sex couples from the rights and benefits of marriage. The decision concluded that the state law limiting marriage to different-sex couples violated sections of the Constitution that required due process and equal protection of the laws. The court did not require the state to allow same-sex couples to marry, but mandated the creation of a civil union status that would provide all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. Downing stayed enforcement of his order pending appeal to the Washington Supreme Court. On April 1, 2004, eleven same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in state court challenging Washington's laws that banned same-sex couples from marrying. They also sought recognition of marriages performed legally in other jurisdictions. On September 7, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard D. Hicks ruled in ''Castle v. State'' that the state's marriage laws violated the equal protection of privileges and immunities clause of the State Constitution.

The Washington Supreme Court consolidated the two cases, ''Andersen v. Sims'' and ''Castle v. State'', for review as '' Andersen v. King County''. It heard oral arguments on March 8, 2005. On July 26, 2006, it reversed the trial courts' determinations in a 5–4 ruling. The majority opinion focused on the constitutionality of the State Legislature's enactment of the ''Defense of Marriage Act'' limiting the privileges of marriage to opposite-sex couples. In October 2006, the court refused to reconsider its ruling.

Initiative 957

On January 10, 2007, the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, an activist organization that, despite its name, favored marriage rights for same-sex couples, filed a voter initiative, Initiative 957, to incorporate part of the ''Andersen'' decision into state statutes by making procreation a requirement for all marriages in Washington. The group's stated rationale was to prompt public examination of the premise that marriage exists for the purpose of procreation and to create a test case in which ''Andersen'' would be reversed. The initiative's sponsors withdrew it on July 3, after failing to gather a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Same-sex marriage law

Passage and promulgation

Advocates of marriage rights for same-sex couples, lacking the votes in the State Legislature to accomplish their objective, instead focused on enacting domestic partnerships that would grant such couples a subset of the rights attached to marriage. A law to this effect was approved by the State Legislature in 2007. This legal status was also made available under certain circumstances to different-sex couples. The legislation took effect on April 22, 2007. A same-sex marriage bill was also introduced in the 2007 legislative session, but failed to make it out of committee.

On January 26, 2012, legislation legalizing same-sex marriage and converting most domestic partnerships not dissolved within two years into marriages passed the Washington State Senate's Committee for Government Operations, Tribal Relations and Elections. Republican Dan Swecker introduced four amendments that failed on a party-line vote of 3–4. Republican Don Benton asked for the legislation to be placed on the November 2012 ballot as a referendum but his motion failed by a 3–4 vote. The bill was reported out of the committee by a 4–3 vote. It passed the Senate by a vote of 28–21 on February 1.

The House of Representatives took up the same measure and passed it out of the Judiciary Committee on January 30 by a 7–6 party-line vote. The committee voted on the Senate-approved version of the bill on February 6, passing it by a 7–5 vote, with one Republican committee member absent. The House passed the legislation on February 8 by a vote of 55–43. The legislation also provided that all domestic partnerships not involving at least one member aged 62 years or older and not dissolved within two years of the date the law would go into effect would automatically become marriages. Governor Christine Gregoire signed the bill into law on February 13. It was scheduled to take effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session.

Referendum

Opponents of the legalization of same-sex marriage delayed its implementation by collecting the signatures necessary to put the measure to a popular vote on November 6, 2012, as Referendum 74. In that referendum, voters approved the law by a 54%–46% margin. The law took effect on December 6. Because Washington requires a three-day waiting period (excluding the day of issue) before a marriage license may be signed, the first same-sex marriages in the state took place on December 9, 2012. Among the first couples to obtain marriage licenses were Lisa Brodoff and Lynn Grotsky in Olympia, the state capital, early on Thursday morning, December 6. In Seattle, about 150 same-sex couples lined up outside Seattle City Hall shortly before midnight, "waiting in a festive atmosphere for the doors to open" to obtain marriage licenses. Jane Abbott Lighty and Pete-e Petersen were the first couple to obtain a license in King County.

The definition of marriage in the state of Washington is now the following:

Subsequent developments

Three years after legalization in Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide with its ''Obergefell v. Hodges'' ruling on June 26, 2015. State Senator Jamie Pedersen

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