OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Same-sex couples and elderly couples will be able to register as domestic partners starting this summer, after Gov. Chris Gregoire on Saturday signed into law a measure giving them some of the rights that come with marriage.
The law creates a domestic partnership registry with the state, and will provide enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.
"Today is a beginning, not an end," said Sen. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who sponsored the measure and who is one of five openly gay lawmakers in the state Legislature. "It offers the hope that one day, all lesbian and gay families will be treated truly equal under the law."
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