Seattle to recognize marriages of gay city workers

11:15 AM PST on Monday, March 8, 2004

From KING Staff and Wire Reports

KING Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels signed an executive order Monday for city agencies to recognize same-sex marriages of city workers.

SEATTLE - Six same-sex couples filed a lawsuit Monday seeking the right to get married after they were refused marriage licenses by a sympathetic public official, as the mayor ordered the city to recognize the marriages of gay city employees who tie the knot elsewhere.

The six couples applied for marriage licenses at the King County Administration Building but were rejected because of a state law that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

County Administrator Ron Sims said he supported the couples' efforts, but had no choice but to uphold the law.

"Equal protection for all under the law is the basis of our nation," Sims said. "Every civil rights issue that we pursue and win makes us a stronger people and a stronger country."

The couples applauded Sims remarks, then went to King County Superior Court to file their lawsuit, which argues that the law violates the state Constitution's equal protection clause.

"I think what we've seen starting slowly over the last 10 years and really accelerating in the last four months ... is an enormous groundswell, close to a popular uprising, of gay couples demanding the right to marry," Jamie Pedersen, the couples' lawyer, said before filing the lawsuit.

Mayor Greg Nickels issued an executive order Monday requiring the city to recognize same-sex marriages by municipal employees.

In an exclusive interview with KING 5 News, Nickels explained why the issue is so important to him.

"I think it's a question of fairness," said Nickels. "If two people are committed to one another, they love one another and are willing to take on the responsibilities of marriage, they ought to have the rights that go with that."

Nickels also said he'll ask the City Council to protect gay married couples throughout the city from discrimination in employment, housing or the use of parks or other city facilities. If the council approves the ordinance, it also would require contractors doing business with the city to recognize gay marriages among their own employees.

Rick Forcier, head of the state Christian Coalition and a critic of extending marriage licenses to gay couples, called Nickels' plan a clear violation of state law.

"What he's about to do is anarchy - taking the law into his own hands," Forcier said. "People cannot be recognized as married in one jurisdiction and not in another."

AP Tay Juncker, left, and Kathy Belge pose with their marriage certificate after a news conference for Basic Rights Oregon in Portland.

Nickels said he lacks the legal authority to issue same-sex marriage licenses or certificates like mayors in San Francisco and New Paltz, N.Y., have done.

State lawmakers passed a "Defense of Marriage Act" in 1998, making Washington one of 38 states defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Gov. Gary Locke vetoed the law, but lawmakers overrode the veto.

Seattle has offered domestic partnership benefits to its employees since 1989, but that process requires extensive paperwork - a step same-sex couples would be able to skip under Nickels' executive order.

State Rep. Ed Murray, one of four openly gay men in the Legislature, applauded Nickels' proposal but said the battle should be fought on a statewide front.

"We have to be clear about it: legalizing gay marriage has to be handled in courts and in the Legislature," Murray said.

More than 3,600 same-sex marriages have been performed in San Francisco in the last three weeks, and hundreds of gay couples were granted wedding licenses last week in Portland, Ore. The marriages are being challenged in court.

Nearly 40 gay couples have received marriage certificates in New Paltz, N.Y., where Mayor Jason West has been charged with solemnizing marriages without a license, a misdemeanor. A judge has temporarily barred him from marrying any more same-sex couples.