Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is
expected to endorse a bid to legalize gay marriage in the state, The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
Gregoire will hold a press conference
on Wednesday morning to discuss the upcoming legislation.
Democratic state Senator Ed Murray from
Seattle is the chief sponsor of the soon-to-be introduced gay
marriage bill.
Gregoire has signed into law previous
bills shoring up the state's domestic partnership law. The latest
expansion approved in 2009 gives gay and lesbian couples most of the
legal protections of marriage. Murray, who is openly gay, also
backed these bills.
The 2009 expansion – dubbed
“everything but marriage” – survived a referendum seeking to
repeal the measure.
Marriage was defined as a heterosexual
union with passage of a 1998 law, which survived a legal challenge in
2006.
Murray told the paper that if Gregoire
announces her support for the upcoming effort, “it would certainly
help us move the issue of marriage equality this session.”
A
poll released in October found that 55 percent of Washingtonians
would vote against a ballot initiative that attempted to repeal a gay
marriage law.