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Concerns the legal status of domestic partnerships of LGBT people | |||||||||||||
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The 2009 Washington Referendum 71 (R-71) legalized domestic partnership in Washington state, the first statewide referendum in the United States that extended to LGBT people the rights and responsibility of domestic partnership.[1] The bill had passed State Legislature, and it was signed into law by the Governor in May 2009, but opponents gathered enough signatures to put the measure before the voters, who returned ballots by mail over three weeks ending on November 3, 2009, approving the measure 53% to 47%. The new law went into effect 30 days later, on December 3, 2009.[2]
Prior to this Washington state vote, a ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions, Arizona Proposition 107, was rejected by voters in that state in 2006, who two years later passed the civil-unions-neutral Arizona Proposition 102.
- ^ La Corte, Rachel. "Voters approve 'everything but marriage' bill". Associated Press. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
- ^ Ammons, David. "R-71: Effective 12-3-09". From Our Corner. Retrieved March 19, 2010.