Gay Marriage Bill Finally Approved

Gay Marriage Bill Finally Approved

A bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington has finally won the final legislative approval last Wednesday that makes the state the seventh in the country to allow gay marriages.

Despite the disapproval of certain opponents, led by some religious conservatives who vowed to revoke it in November polls, Christine Gregoire, Washington's Democratic Governor, announced that she had been looking forward to signing the bill and "putting into law an end to an era of discrimination."

Several major Washington-based service companies employing thousands of personnel in the state including Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks, also supported the bill.

In Maryland and New Jersey, thousands of supporters are also pushing similar bills to legalize gay marriage.   In Maine, a similar referendum qualified for the November polls.

The District of Columbia, as well as six other states, has already recognized gay marriage.  These states include New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut and Vermont.

By the end of the week, the bill is to be delivered to the governor’s office and Gregoire will then have five working days to formally sign it.

However, challengers of gay marriages promised to overturn the bill via a referendum to revoke it.

The proposal would definitely need 241,153 registered voters’ signatures by July 6 in order for it to qualify on the November ballot.

Granting that the referendum qualifies, the same-sex marriage law would be upheld until the election before it is either finally repealed or goes into effect.

Posted by James Fried on Friday February 10 2012, 4:13 AM EDT. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Nation. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0