Washington’s Governor Backs Gay Marriage

Governor Christine Gregoire announced on Wednesday that she wants ‘to support marriage equality’ and introduce a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Washington State.

Her announcement comes as no big surprise, since she is the Governor who signed a bill recognising legal, out-of-state, same-sex marriage as equal, giving all married couples the same rights in Washington State.

This comes after the legalisation of same-sex marriage in New York on June 24 last year, and, if passed, would make Washington the seventh state to officially legalise same-sex marriage – joining New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.  It would be the eighth, had it not been for Proposition 8 being passed in California on November 4, 2008, which banned same-sex marriage, just months after it was originally legalised in that state on June 16. Although Proposition 8 is being currently being appealed against – largely due to the support of federal judge Vaughn R. Walker – it is being held up on its way to the Supreme Court, and may not be overturned until next summer.

The United States is set to become one of the key campaigners for LGBT Rights over the next few years, despite cacophonous assaults like that of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum - famously slated by Dan Savage - clouding the issue with extremist views on homosexuality and marriage equality. Santorum is currently in the news for having compared polygamy to same-sex marriage; ‘If reason says that if you think it’s OK for two, then you have to differentiate with me as to why it’s not OK for three [men to get married].’  This is because President Obama’s opposition to the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage led to it being an issue to be discussed within each individual state. This means that once one state gave complete marriage equality to same-sex couples – under the US Constitution, which states that each person is granted equal protection under the law – it is unconstitutional to try and oppose it elsewhere.

[Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-06/santorum-is-booed-by-college-crowd-for-opposing-gay-marriage.html]

We can only hope that once Washington has legalised same-sex marriage, this will show those opposed to it that equality of rights for LGBT people isn’t just for Christmas, but here to stay.