Lawmakers announce 'everything but marriage' bill

Adrienne Purcella has been a police officer for a year - just about as long as she's been in a domestic partnership with Libby Cope.

The Seattle couple joined other gay and lesbian couples Wednesday as lawmakers announced a move they hope leads to another milestone for them: the expansion of the state's domestic partnership law to offer same-sex couples all the rights and benefits given to heterosexual married couples.

"Not only for now, but in our future when we have kids, I need to know that she and they are protected if anything happens to me," said Purcella, a Federal Way police officer. "To not have that protection is very scary."

The 110-page bill makes changes to all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are addressed. The bill would add same-sex domestic partners to state statutes ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits.

"I would say the most remarkable thing about this bill is that it is unremarkable," said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. "Instead of the cultural wars that we have seen year after year, we see a Legislature that is mostly on board in moving forward on protecting all of Washington's families."

Murray, who sponsored the state's domestic partnership law in 2007, is sponsoring the expansion bill in the Senate this year; Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, is sponsoring the measure in the House. They are two of six openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature.

Last year, both lawmakers led a successful effort to expand the partnership protections to sections of laws where previously only spouses were mentioned, including areas referring to probate and trusts, community property and homestead exemptions, and guardianship and powers of attorney.

This year, 20 lawmakers in the Senate and nearly 60 in the House have already signed on in support of the newest expansion, and with strong Democratic majorities in both chambers, the measure is expected to fare well.

The underlying domestic partnership law spearheaded by Murray two years ago, provides hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

Opponents argue that the latest measure is just one more step to sanctioning same-sex marriage, which they say dilutes traditional marriage.

"With this year's legislation, they are taking the final step to stitch together gay marriage in a state that does not legally permit it," Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, said in a prepared statement.

A measure legalizing same-sex marriage measure also has been introduced to the Legislature, but is unlikely to go anywhere this year, and supporters have made no secret of their desire in that effort.

Pedersen said the domestic partnership expansion will give families a bridge until they can legally get married.

"The purpose of this legislation is to provide a way for us to talk about how our families are harmed concretely by their exclusion from civil marriage," he said. "We hope that sooner, rather than later, we'll be here talking about a marriage bill."

As of Wednesday, 4,940 domestic partnership registrations had been filed since the law took effect in July 2007.

A spokesman for Gov. Chris Gregoire, Pearse Edwards, said the governor supports the expansion measure. Gregoire signed the last two domestic partnership bills into law, as well as a gay civil rights law that passed in 2006.

The bill will get its first public hearing next Thursday, in both House and Senate committees.

To be registered as partners, couples must share a home, must not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 18.

In a provision similar to California law, unmarried heterosexual senior couples also are eligible for domestic partnerships if one partner is at least 62. Lawmakers said that provision was included to help seniors who are at risk of losing pension rights and Social Security benefits if they remarry.

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The domestic partnership measures are Senate Bill 5688 and House Bill 1727. The marriage bill is Senate Bill 5674.

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Washington state Legislature: http://www.leg.wa.gov