Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is set to sign the state’s gay marriage bill at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time Monday in the Capitol’s reception room, The Associated Press and The Advocate reported.
“I knew now was the time to face it,” Gov. Gregoire said during an interview with The Advocate in January. “And as I faced it, both as a mom and as a wife, and as a Catholic, as a governor, and wrote it down on a piece of paper, the logic of it all fell into the words that I put down there.”
The bill’s passage makes Washington the seventh state to legally recognize same-sex spousal rights. It’s slated to go into effect June 7. Antigay activists have already begun mobilizing to get a referendum on the ballot in November.
Thwarting marriage equality will face legal challenges. The Ninth Court of Appeals in California deemed the Golden State’s controversial Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The court ruled penalizing gays and lesbians was Prop 8’s sole purpose.
Photo: wash.gov
