The Washington State Senate on Wednesday voted 28 to 21 to pass a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage. The bill now goes to the State Legislature which is expected to pass it and then to the governor who has said she would sign it into law whereupon Washington will be the seventh US State to allow same sex marriage. The die hard conservatives have vowed to seek a public referendum, but laws duly passed by legislative bodies and signed by the governor are unlikely to be overturned. (At Right: Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, and his partner Michael Shiosaka)

(The California lawmakers passed gay marriage twice, but their movie star governor vetoed it twice before it went to a public referendum.)

Before the Gay Marriage Bill could be passed in Washington, nearly a dozen amendments were introduced, including several that strengthened legal protections for religious groups and organizations. The Washington lawmakers wanted to make sure that religious and homophobic groups could continue to preach and spread their practiced hatred for gay people. (This is equivalent to the "Jim Crow" laws passed against African Americans for a hundred years in the US South.)

Washington State entered the Union in 1889 as the 42nd State and is the 18th largest in land mass and, with nearly eight million people, the 13th most populous.

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