Rick Santorum is scheduled to meet with
gay marriage foes in Washington state on Monday, the same day
Governor Chris Gregoire is holding a signing ceremony for a bill
legalizing gay marriage in the state, The
Seattle Times reported.
Gregoire will sign the bill into law at
11:30AM, making Washington the seventh state to legalize gay
marriage.
The Democrat-controlled House approved
the measure with a 55-43 vote on Wednesday, a day after a federal
court declared California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, in
violation of the United States Constitution, and one week after
the Washington Senate passed the measure with a wider margin than
expected.
Santorum, considered the GOP
presidential field's most vocal opponent of giving gay couples the
right to marry, will meet with opponents of the measure in Olympia in
the afternoon. A 7PM campaign rally is scheduled at the Washington
Historical Museum in Tacoma.
Opponents have already begun an effort
to repeal the measure at the ballot box. But voters in 2009 rejected
a ballot question aimed at repealing the state's domestic partnership
law, which gives gay and lesbian couples all the protections of
marriage without the name.
If opponents gather sufficient
signatures to put the law up for a vote, its June start would be put
on hold pending the outcome of a November election.
Washington holds its presidential
caucuses on March 3.