Washington: Bill To Expand Partnership Rights Being Drafted

Another battle over the rights of same-sex couples is headed to the state Legislature this year as activists try to expand rights available under Washington’s 11/2-year-old domestic-partnership registry. Lawmakers are currently drafting a 1,900 page of the partnership bill.

That registry has 4,892 couples with either two members of the same gender or one member who’s 62 or older. Nearly 200 rights are included, including the right to hospital visits, inheriting through community property laws, and the power to make decisions about a loved one’s remains.

Democratic Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle says he thinks it still is too early to push for full marriage rights, an effort that suffered setbacks at the polls in California, Arizona and Florida this fall. Leaders with Equal Rights Washington say also a Washington referendum could be premature, undoing any same-sex-marriage law that might pass in this state.

Murray instead plans to focus on adding rights to the partnership registry, which lawmakers created in 2007 as a step toward a long-range goal of “marriage equality.” One draft of the rights bill is cumbersome, running close to 1,900 pages, and it deals with pensions, parenting issues and taxes.

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