GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE

Great news, though a bit distressing that it only passed by 2 votes.

Senate Passes Gay Civil Rights Bill January 27, 2006
KOMO News 4

OLYMPIA - Lawmakers passed a gay civil rights measure on Friday, a major victory for gay rights activists who have watched the measure fail in the Legislature for nearly 30 years.
The bill passed the Senate on a 25-23 vote, with a lone Republican joining majority Democrats. The House quickly concurred, and Gov. Chris Gregoire said she planned to sign the bill into law Tuesday.
Cheers erupted from the Senate's balconies, which were packed with onlookers expecting the bill to clear its perennial roadblock.
Rep. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who has sponsored the bill for 11 years, was given a standing ovation in the House after the measure gained final approval.
"I know for some, you're not happy," said Murray, one of four openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature. "For others, it's a historic day that quite honestly we wouldn't imagine could have happened even a few short years ago. It's a new dawn, it's a new day."
The measure adds "sexual orientation" to a state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance, making Washington the 17th state passing such laws covering gays and lesbians, and the seventh to protect transgender people.
Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, was the sole Senate Republican to endorse the measure, a year after it lost by just one vote in the Senate. Two Senate Democrats voted against the measure. One Republican was not present.
"We don't choose who we love. The heart chooses who we will love. And I don't believe that it is right for us to say ... that it's acceptable to discriminate against people because of that," Finkbeiner said in a floor speech.
Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, said the measure would "trample unrelentingly" on religious viewpoints that object to gays.
"We, the state, are telling people to accept, actually to embrace, something that goes against their religious views," he said.
The measure passed the House last week on a 60-37 vote, with six Republicans joining 54 Democrats in support.
Republicans amended the bill on the House floor to say that it would not modify or change state marriage laws.
The state Supreme Court heard arguments on a case challenging Washington's ban on gay marriage last year, and a ruling is expected in the coming weeks.
A Senate amendment this week added a caveat saying the state doesn't endorse "any specific belief, practice, behavior, or orientation."
"We have truly made history," Gregoire said in a news conference following the vote.
Gregoire told Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the news by cell phone, holding the phone away from her ear as she said they cheered. Cantwell and Clinton were in Seattle for a fundraiser Friday.
The measure was first introduced in 1977, but it is most closely associated with the state's first openly gay lawmaker, Democrat Cal Anderson of Seattle, who sponsored it for eight years before he died of AIDS in 1995.
"I don't doubt that he's really smiling down on us right now," said his partner of 10 years, Eric Ishina of Seattle. "He gave a lot of us the enthusiasm and energy to keep fighting for this bill."
The fight for the bill in essence came to an end this month, when Finkbeiner announced he would switch his vote, and the momentum of support continued outside of Olympia.
Earlier this month, several companies, including Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Nike Inc. signed a letter urging passage of the measure, which would add "sexual orientation" to a state law that already bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, marital status and other factors.
Microsoft's pitch for the bill comes a year after it was denounced for quietly dropping its support.
The bill has sparked significant debate across the state, and two public hearings drew dozens of people who opposed the measure on moral grounds.
"What you're going to have to have now is the promoting of homosexual sex as normal via the apparatus of government," said Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten of the Faith & Freedom Network.
Fuiten said his organization was preparing to file for a referendum on the bill, but added that he may wait on the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage.
Gregoire said she would fight any effort to undo the law.
"I will fight any initiative, any referendum that tries to take back the equality these folks and others around our great state have been given today," she said.
Celebrations were planned in nine cities Friday night, including Seattle, Bellingham, Spokane and Yakima.