Domestic partners to become spouses June 30

In 2007, Gary Hatle and Lee Wyman were among the first Snohomish County couples to register with the state as domestic partners. Five years later, a Washington law gave them the green light to marry.

On Dec. 11, 2012, five days after the state’s same-sex marriage law took effect, they were married at Everett’s Trinity Lutheran Church.

The Everett couple have no major decisions to make this month. That can’t be said of many others in Washington who are registered as domestic partners.

Under the law approved by voters, domestic partnerships will automatically convert to marriages on June 30 — unless the partnership is dissolved, is in the process of being dissolved, or at least one partner is 62 or older.

“It was pretty widely discussed, and it was on the ballot. But it will still catch some people off guard,” said David Ammons, communications director for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

The Secretary of State’s Corporations Division keeps a registry of domestic partnerships. With the deadline looming, the state updates the numbers of active and terminated partnerships throughout each day. By Tuesday afternoon, there were 6,654 active domestic partnership registrations, and 1,237 had been terminated.

Because Hatle is over 62 — he’ll turn 70 next month — he and Wyman could have maintained their partnership if they hadn’t married. The law included the provision for seniors, regardless of gender, because of their risk of losing pension and Social Security benefits if they married.

After June 30, there will be no legal domestic partnership for younger couples — regardless of gender. The intent of the law was marriage equality. “We’re not going to have a special thing off to one side,” Ammons said.

Although Hatle and Wyman obtained a legal marriage license in Snohomish County and were wed in church, their names remain on the registry of domestic partnerships. Hatle said he thought county records would make it to the state. When he and Wyman got their marriage license in 2012, they checked a box indicating their domestic partnership would end.

Like all other registered domestic partners in Washington, they recently received mail about the law, about dissolving a partnership, and how to get an updated marriage certificate. Hatle didn’t bother to respond because he’s already married.

That’s not a problem for the Everett couple, said Pam Floyd, director of the Corporations Division for the Secretary of State. “A domestic partnership is null and void when they marry,” she said. County marriage license information eventually shows up in the state’s vital records, she said.

Under the domestic partnership law, Floyd said, a dissolution must go through the courts and includes a 90-day waiting period, just like a divorce. If a dissolution is pending, it won’t be converted to a marriage June 30.

The Department of Health is handling conversions using the Secretary of State’s data, Floyd said. Couples who will become newly married June 30 can request, for $20, a new Washington State Marriage Certificate.

Hatle may be surprised that his legal date of marriage isn’t the day he and Wyman were wed in church. For couples who registered as domestic partners in Washington, Floyd said, the legal marriage date will be when they registered — for Hatle and Wyman, that’s July 23, 2007. The marriage certificate will also include a place for the date and location of the ceremony.

Kokie Adams, a trust and estates lawyer with the Purcell &Adams law firm in Lynnwood, said the legal date of a marriage matters greatly if a couple decides to divorce. Issues could arise involving children, property, and even wages and retirement funds, she said. “Some same-sex couples may not be of that mindset yet — this is real,” Adams said.

Hatle said he and Wyman knew the legalities when they registered as domestic partners. He recalls saying to Wyman — half kidding, but half serious — “Do we still want to go through with this? It’s not one of those things you can just walk out of anymore.”

In the eyes of the state, they will soon be married seven years. In their hearts, it’s been a dozen years.

“That’s how long ago we made a commitment to each other,” Hatle said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

Many Washington state registered domestic partnerships will automatically be converted to marriages June 30. Find out more at: www.sos.wa.gov/corps/domesticpartnerships/

Information on marriage certificates for converted partnerships available at:

www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/422-107-CertificateMarriageForm.pdf

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.