Same-sex marriage in Washington (state)

On February 13, 2012, Governor Christine Gregoire signed legislation that established full marriage rights for same-sex couples in the state of Washington.

[2] Governor Gary Locke vetoed the legislation on February 21, calling it "divisive and unnecessary", citing the 1974 state court decision in Singer v. Hara.

[2] In 1998, the State Legislature passed the same legislation, the Defense of Marriage Act, and expected Governor Locke to allow it to become law without his signature.

"[4] According to The Seattle Times: "Lawmakers, eager to be done with the controversial issue, rushed the ban through in minutes and dumped it in the governor's lap.

"[5] In 1971, in Seattle, in one of the first same-sex marriage lawsuits in the United States, gay activists John Singer (later known as Faygele Ben-Miriam)[6] and Paul Barwick requested a marriage license from the King County Auditor, Lloyd Hara, to demonstrate the inequality between gay and heterosexual couples.

[7] Hara refused, and Singer and Barwick brought suit on the grounds that the denial violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the State Constitution.

[8][9] On March 8, 2004, six same-sex couples represented by Lambda Legal filed suit in state court challenging the constitutionality of Washington's Defense of Marriage Act.

On August 4, King County Superior Court Judge William L. Downing issued an opinion in Andersen v. Sims that the state had no rational basis for excluding same-sex couples from the rights and benefits of marriage.

The group's stated rationale was to prompt public examination of the premise that marriage exists for the purpose of procreation and to create a test case in which Andersen would be reversed.

The initiative's sponsors withdrew it on July 3, after failing to gather a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Republican Don Benton asked for the legislation to be placed on the November 2012 ballot as a referendum but his motion failed by a 3–4 vote.

Opponents of the legalization of same-sex marriage delayed its implementation by collecting the signatures necessary to put the measure to a popular vote on November 6, 2012, as Referendum 74.

[25][26] Among the first couples to obtain marriage licenses were Lisa Brodoff and Lynn Grotsky in Olympia, the state capital, early on Thursday morning, December 6.

State Senator Jamie Pedersen welcomed the decision, "There's a great sense of peace that this is finally over after all these years.

The Tulalip Board of Directors amended the Tribal Code on May 6, 2016 to state: "'Marriage' means the legal union of two persons, regardless of their sex, created to the exclusion of all others.

"[37] The Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe announced in the wake of Referendum 74 in December 2012 that they would allow same-sex couples to marry on their reservation, including at the Heronswood Botanical Gardens in Kingston.

While there are no records of same-sex marriages as understood from a Western perspective being performed in Native American cultures, there is evidence for identities and behaviours that may be placed on the LGBT spectrum.

Many of these cultures recognized two-spirit individuals who were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere.

[d] In 2006, a study from the University of California, Los Angeles estimated the impact of allowing same-sex couples to marry on Washington's state budget.

This net impact would result from savings in state expenditures on means-tested public benefits programs and from an increase in sales tax revenue from weddings and wedding-related tourism.

[51] By December 31, 2015, approximately 15,750 same-sex marriages had been performed in Washington, a significant proportion of which occurred in the first 12 months of legalisation.

[57] According to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey conducted between March 11 and December 14, 2022, 83% of Washington respondents supported same-sex marriage, while 15% were opposed.