Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, is the second House Republican to announce support for legislation that would legalize same sex marriage in the state.

Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, is a co-sponsor of the bill.

The measure already had 50 signatures -- enough votes for passage in the House -- without Anderson, but he gets the award for what is likely the longest explanation to date for supporting gay marriage.

There's a duplicate measure in the Senate where the legislation's fate is more uncertain.

Anderson starts off noting "The biological starting point is that male/female pair-bonding has been scientifically dated back about 1.5 million years" and then, among other things, walks through the Code of Hammurabi in ancient Babylonia, judicial codes of the late Roman Empire, the U.S. Constitution and ends with "there is a continuous historical record of a homosexual minority in every civilization, and every race, worldwide which, again, strongly suggests a continuous genetic pattern."

"In my view, civil same-sex marriage does not undermine the right of individuals to freely choose association with religious organizations that seek to encourage traditional marriage values with which they agree. Neither does it obstruct the ability to practice the values of religious marriage, either individually or with like-minded persons," Anderson said in a statement.