Domestic partners: House passes
‘fair-minded, commonsense principles’

Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore Moeller
presides as ‘equality in the law’ is approved

April 16, 2009

OLYMPIA – “The right and fair thing – not just for registered and potentially registered domestic partners, but for all six million Washington people.”

That’s what one of its supporters proclaimed of a civil-rights bill that captured approval, 62 -35, in the state House of Representatives yesterday (Wednesday, April 15, 2009).

State Rep. Jim Moeller said the measure directs state law to assure that registered domestic partners have the same rights and responsibilities as married spouses.

“Domestic-partnership benefits for same-sex couples are fair-minded, commonsense principles,” said Moeller, D-Vancouver.

“What we’re talking about here is a very significant and important step in our state’s civil-rights evolution,” Moeller said. “This legislation simply establishes equality in the law – no more, no less.”

As House Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore, Moeller presided over the discussion surrounding Senate Bill 5688 in the full House of Representatives.

“We as a state have fairly recently taken the long overdue step of outlawing discrimination that is based on a person’s sexual orientation,” noted Moeller. “Today, the House approved rational, reasonable principles to affirm domestic-partnership rights and benefits for same-sex couples.”

“Nothing is more personal and more intimate than the decision two human beings make to commit themselves to one another,” he added. “Gay and lesbian American citizens over the past few years have in fact used brief windows of opportunity to pledge their lives in union to one another.

“Gay marriage is legal throughout Canada and in many European countries. And as gay and lesbian people are marrying across this country and around this world, traditional marriages have not been destroyed.

“Meteors have not annihilated us,” Moeller pointed out. “The world has not stopped revolving. The real threats to marriage remain as they have always been: lack of commitment, communication, and trust. Imagine that!”

Moeller also said that providing more security for domestic partners “is even more important in these turbulent economic times. It seems to me that this legislation is as much about protecting the lives of families as it is about respecting the rights of couples.”

The Domestic Partnership Registry was created in 2007 in legislation for which Moeller also helped lead support. The registry is open to same-gender and senior-citizen couples. The registry is maintained in the state secretary of state’s office, and couples may register as domestic partners if the adult partners are the same gender. A couple can also register for inclusion on the registry if the partners are different genders and one of them is at least 62 years old.