Topic: State to same-sex domestic partners: You’re about to be married

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Originally published February 15, 2014 at 8:05 PM | Page modified February 16, 2014 at 8:37 PM

State to same-sex domestic partners: You’re about to be married

On June 30, the state of Washington will convert to marriage the domestic partnerships of thousands of gay and lesbian couples who have not gotten married on their own or not gotten a legal dissolution.


By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter

Thousands of gay and lesbian domestic partners who have not married or legally dissolved their unions by the end of June will have their relationships automatically converted to marriage — courtesy of the state.

It’s the final piece of the state’s same-sex marriage law — a provision about which many couples are apparently unaware and one sure to trigger some uncomfortable conversations.

Although domestic partnerships are essentially marriage by a different name, “people don’t think of them as the same thing ...” said Jason Holloway, president of QLaw Association, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender bar association.

Those being plunged into matrimony will no doubt include couples who simply hadn’t given it much thought.

Or there will be those who broke up in the years since they registered as domestic partners, some of them now married — illegally — to other people.

The queers may be in arrears in moving out of the Peoples Republik of Washington.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022921079_marriageconversionxml.html