Domestic partnerships move steadily forward

A year ago, July 23 became a milestone for hundreds of same-sex couples who registered for domestic partnerships. To those who registered on the first day, happy anniversary. Washington is inching -- and sometimes, leaping -- toward equality. We hope the first annual celebrations are merry ones.

This first year has been a bureaucratic one. Several city and county governments had registered domestic partners for years, but at the state level, the process can be much more seamless. Those municipalities were ahead of the game; they should continue to be petri dishes for ways that government can acknowledge and administer to the changing American family.

In June, the progress was especially ground-breaking. New laws gave domestic partners a whole new range of rights and responsibilities. Domestic partnerships are on track to nearly parallel marriages. Seems only fair.

Those in heterosexual marriages gain about 500 rights under Washington law. Before the new laws last month, Washington domestic partners only gained about 22. They now have about 170 and that rift is still changing, thanks to the hard work of activists and lawmakers such as Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle.

D. Ann Peters, domestic partnership supervisor for the Secretary of State, knows there are still gray areas in the process. For example, next of kin needs to be more clearly defined and notarizing the certificates can be complicated. Those discrepancies are up to the legislators. The Secretary of State's office does an excellent job making sure the to-be-partnered aren't scrounging through red tape while filing. Sadly, it may be a long time before it's universal practice. Gender pronouns on government forms are just one worm in the can.

The shiny newness of domestic partnerships will also see inevitable terminations. Like their more celebratory counterparts, domestic partnership dissolutions need to become more like divorces. Breakups are ugly enough without all the extra trouble.

This anniversary is tremendously exciting for people such as Connie Watts, executive director of Equal Rights Washington. She mentioned how same-sex couples have welcomed creative solutions, even holding notarizing parties. Yet she still sees couples and former couples entangled in legal snafus. The partners denied visas, entrance to emergency rooms and ceded rights when crossing state lines.

It's a tough climb, but the progress is palpable.

"We see a lot of anniversaries in our future," Watts said.

Here's to that.