Washington gay-marriage advocates see tide turning, but look to Legislature

In the battle for same-sex marriage rights, gays in Washington state are making steady gains on a path similar to the one in California that led to Thursday's decisive and long-awaited victory for gays there.

Four years after Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to allow gays to marry, Thursday's 4-3 ruling by the California Supreme Court pumped euphoria into a movement that desperately needed a win.

California's high court did what Washington's wouldn't two years ago: Justices on the Supreme Court here rejected many of the same arguments regarding equality, letting stand a state law that limits marriage in Washington to the union of a man and woman.

In the years since, Washington's gay and lesbian couples have been gradually gaining marriagelike benefits through a domestic-partnership registry established in 2007 and expanded this year by the state Legislature.

Same-sex couples who register their unions with the state are entitled to a growing list of benefits that include property rights and child support.

Similarly, California's domestic-partnership program, the first in the U.S. when it was started in 1999, was expanded over the years to include most benefits common to marriage.

Eventually, organizers here say they'll shift their goal to pursue the title of marriage as gays in California did — only not through the courts but by way of the Legislature.

"The main thing is that the tide may be turning," said Lisa Stone, executive director of the Northwest Women's Law Center, which represented local gay and lesbian couples in this state's gay-marriage lawsuit.

"We will continue to push for full domestic partnership on the way to full marriage," Stone said. "We just won't get there through our courts here."

But Joseph Fuiten, pastor of Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Bothell, called the decision a "very bad deal for the American way of life."

All that separated California's domestic-partnership rights from marital rights is the title of marriage, he said, citing the ruling, "and that's precisely the path we are on here."

Twenty-six states have approved state constitutional amendments that ban gay marriage. And while 10 others offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples, none has followed Massachusetts and a growing number of foreign countries in allowing full marriage.

Stone pointed out that the California decision was based in part on that state's guarantee of equal protection — that privileges granted to one group can't be denied another — the same argument that had been made by proponents in Washington and rejected by a majority of the high court here.

Thursday's ruling carries virtually no legal punch outside California — gay and lesbian couples going there from Washington and other states to marry would likely have no marital rights back home. Most states don't recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere.

"In a way, you can say this is some other state choosing some other path," said Julie Shapiro, associate professor of law at Seattle University.

Still, she expects Thursday's ruling to create significant momentum in the movement nationwide. "It's a hugely important opinion. And California is not just a very large state, it's also a very influential one."

Connie Watts of Seattle-based Equal Rights Washington calls it "a victory for all Americans who cherish fairness and opportunity."