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Washington State House Votes to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

Posted by on Feb 8, 2012 in Inspirgaytion | 4 comments

Coming (very) soon: Your big, gay Washington wedding.

Hot on the heels of last week’s Senate vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington State, today the Washington House also approved the bill in a comfortable vote of 55 to 43.

Governor Christine Gregoire is expected to sign the bill into law within the week, making Washington the seventh state in the country to expand marriage equality to LGBT citizens.

The developments in Washington parallel an appeals court decision in California on Tuesday in which a panel of judges ruled 2 to 1 to strike down that state’s ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8. The two deciding judges wrote that the ban violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Washington is among more than 30 states that have passed laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman, but it has steadily expanded rights for gay couples since 2007. That year, the Democratically controlled Legislature approved domestic partnerships. In 2009, it passed an “everything but marriage” bill. Full marriage rights began speeding toward approval last month, when Ms. Gregoire, a Democrat, announced that she would support the bill to make same-sex marriage legal.

On a personal note, today’s good news is tempered by the fact that I have been engaged to my fiance Nick for two years now in this state. We’re moving to New Orleans in less than three weeks now, but marriage licenses will not be available to same-sex couples until late Spring at the very earliest. Womp womp!

But fantastic news all around. Progress is a process, and it fills me with pride to see my home seeing me as just a bit more equal today than the day before.