Marriage in Washington State

What’s happened so far: the legal struggle

-- In 1998, the Washington State Legislature passed a “Defense of Marriage Act” prohibiting the state from recognizing any marriage between two people of the same sex.
-- In March 2004, Lambda Legal and the Northwest Women’s Law Center filed a lawsuit in King County on behalf of eight same-sex couples challenging the constitutionality of the state’s prohibition.
--In April 2004, ACLU filed a lawsuit in Thurston County on behalf of eleven same-sex couples who are also seeking the right to marry and to have marriages obtained in other states or countries recognized.
--In August 2004, Judge William L. Downing of the King County Superior Court, ruled the state’s DOMA unconstitutional; in September 2004, Judge Richard Hicks of the Thurston County Superior Court, also ruled the state’s DOMA unconstitutional, using different arguments to reach the same conclusion. The cases were joined and appealed to the Washington State Supreme Court.
--On March 8, 2005, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments.

When will we hear from the Supreme Court?

No one knows when the Supreme Court will issue its opinion. Almost all Supreme Court decisions are published on Thursdays, and the Court typically posts notice of the upcoming decisions on Wednesday afternoons. Therefore, we hope to have about 18 hours’ notice of the decision’s release, though we will not know the content of the decision until it is published.

What will the Supreme Court decide?

We will not know the Supreme Court’s decision until is published. However, we expect the court to issue one of the following three decisions:

1) The state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional, and same-sex couples must be given full marriage rights. (This was the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.)

2)The state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional, and the legislature needs to find a remedy that provides same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of heterosexual married couples. (This was the decision of the Vermont Supreme Court).

3) The state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples is constitutional.

What happens after the decision?

No matter what the Supreme Court decides, we know that we have hard work ahead in the legislature.
--If the court decides that the ban on marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional, our opponents will push a constitutional amendment. 
-- If the court also requires the legislature to find a remedy, many will seek to create a second-class, parallel status such as civil unions.
--If the court finds the ban on marriage for same-sex couples constitutional, we’ll work to repeal DOMA in the state legislature.

What’s required to amend the Washington State Constitution?
To amend the state constitution in Washington, the legislature must first pass an amendment with a 2/3 majority in each house, and then the voters must pass the amendment with a simple (50%) majority.

Anti-gay legislators have proposed constitutional amendments banning marriage for same-sex couples in the past, but these amendments have not made it out of committee. However, if the court has declared the ban unconstitutional, legislators will be under greater pressure to pass such an amendment. We need to organize people across the state now to tell their representatives and senators how important it is to keep discrimination out of our constitution.

Talking about marriage: Everybody has a story to tell

Whenever possible it’s best to share your personal story;your own experiences and observations. Everybody has a story to tell. If you are straight you migtht talk about the important role marriage has played in your life. If you are very young you might share your aspirations for the future.

Below are some themes you may wish to highlight. Remember your letter or e-mail should touch on one or a few themes.

► Marriage is a gateway to essential rights, protections and responsibilities that cannot be achieved through contracts, domestic partnerships, or Civil Unions.
► “Separate” is inherently unequal.
► Marriage is a fundamental human right.
► LGBT individuals form loving lasted committed relationships and need civil marriage rights for the same reasons as their heterosexual peers.
► Denying marriage rights to LGBT individuals stigmatizes gays and lesbians and is particularly harmful to LGBT youth and children being raised by same-sex couples.
► Opposition to marriage equality is based on lack of understanding of gays, lesbians, and their families and insensitivity to their needs.
► Civil marriage and religious marriage are two different things.
► Marriage is unique in its ability to protect families:
         -- Seeks to confer federal rights and protections
         -- Confers all legal state rights, protections, benefits and responsibilities

Why not settle for civil unions?

Civil unions were invented by the Vermont legislature as a way to meet the state Supreme Court’s requirement that they provide the same rights to same-sex couples under state law without having to grant them full dignity. And they’ve proven to be confusing, limiting, and less than equal.

Civil unions make no attempt to confer the over 1000 rights and protections of marriage granted under federal law. Civil unions are not marriage by another name. They are a lesser inferior right.  

The word marriage is itself a protection. Throughout the world, everyone knows what marriage is. The word carries with it an understanding of a legitimate, respected, and recognized relationship. No parallel status has such clarity or offers the same security.

Marriage is a system, recognized from state to state and country to country. A marriage doesn’t change name or meaning when you move across a border. Civil unions, domestic partnerships, and other attempts to provide partial protection leave a patchwork of uncertainty.

Legislators don’t win any friends with civil unions. Those who are opposed to LGBT rights are opposed to marriage and civil unions (and adoption rights and so on). Most of the anti-gay amendments we’ve seen in the past couple of years have not only sought to bar us from marriage, but to ensure that nothing like marriage is available to us.

Marriage equality resources

Check out these web sites for messaging, history, legal information, and just about everything else you’d want to know about the struggle for marriage equality for same-sex couples.

http://www.freedomtomarry.org - Freedom to Marry was founded by Evan Wolfson, a key attorney in the Hawaii marriage case.

http://www.lmaw.org - The Legal Marriage Alliance of Washington has worked for more than ten years to bring legal marriage to same-sex couples in Washington.

http://www.thetaskforce.org/community/marriagecenter.cfm - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has a Marriage Resource Center, with lots of good information.

http://www.equalrightswashington.org - Check the ERW site for current information about the political efforts to secure marriage equality in Washington state - and to learn how you can get involved.