Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights
Celebrating Diverse Families
What makes a family?
Who decides who qualifies as a family?
What protections should a family have?
These questions and many more inform Legal Voice's Celebrating Diverse Families Initiative. Several years ago, we realized that the areas of family law, lesbian and gay rights, assisted reproductive technology, and reproductive freedom were linked by the core question of who gets treated as a "family." And we realized that the law was hopelessly outdated as far as who is recognized as a "family." So we set out to reform state laws—one by one if necessary—to ensure that all families, whether different-sex or same-sex, inter-generational, single-parent, or child-free, are recognized and protected by the law.
In April 2007, the Washington Legislature passed the landmark legislation HR 1351, which created a domestic partner registry and granted some critical rights to same-sex couples and different-sex couples when at least one partner is 62 or older. The Washington Legislature expanded on the original legislation in 2008, increasing the number of rights and responsibilities from 23 to over 180. And in 2009, the Legislature capped this three-year effort by passing a comprehensive law to ensure that registered domestic partners in Washington have all of the rights and responsibilities available to married spouses under state law.
Shortly after the Governor signed the 2009 law, anti-gay extremists filed Referendum 71 to require a public vote to decide whether the new law should be approved. Legal Voice joined the broad Washington Families Standing Together coalition to fight successfully to win approval of Referendum 71 in November 2009 – the first time that voters in any state have approved a ballot measure to protect the rights of LGBT couples.
Keep informed about our work in the Washington Legislature to provide equal rights for all families by signing up for our legislative updates.
Celebrating Diverse Families: Victories
- Establishing that non-biological lesbian parents and others who have parented a child can be legally recognized and have the right to retain their relationship with their child.
In re Parentage of L.B. - Obtaining the right for lesbian and gay couples to have their property divided equitably when their relationship ends, just as different-sex unmarried couples do.
Vasquez v. Hawthorne; Gormley v. Robertson - Fighting for the rights of all couples to marry, without regard to sexual orientation.
Andersen v. King County - Ensuring that frozen "pre-embryos" are not treated as children, and that decision-making about them does not depend on genetic connection.
Litowitz v. Litowitz - Helping ensure that Montana law protects the rights of lesbian parents to maintain relationships with their non-biological children, and to ensure that lesbian and gay couples have the right to a fair and equitable division of their property when a relationship ends.
Kulstad v. Maniaci
- Forcing the University of Montana to provide domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples as well as to unmarried different-sex couples.
Snetsinger v. University of Montana - Educating grandparents and other kinship caregivers about their rights and how the legal system can help them.
For information on your legal rights, see Family Law.
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