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And Now There Are Six!

(Olympia, Washington) Marko Liias has been sworn in as Washington state's newest lawmaker - bringing to six the number of openly gay members of the Legislature.

It also gives Washington the highest number of openly LGBT state lawmakers in the country next only to New Hampshire which has a seven-member gay caucus at its State House.

With a proposal to expand Washington's domestic partner law on the agenda this session Liias joins five other gay Democrats who will vote for it.

Reps. Jamie Pedersen, Jim Moeller, and Dave Upthegrove and Sens. Ed Murray and Joe McDermott all support the plan.

Liias said that while he will be an advocate for LGBT issues he wants to be known as the Representative for all the people in his district.

"The real testament is going to be what we get done," he told the Associated Press. "In the end, that's what's most important, not that we tipped the scales, but that we had six members of the Legislature who worked to get some good things done for their district."

Liias is 26. He replaced Rep. Brian Sullivan who left the Legislature for the Snohomish County Council.

Washington's first openly gay lawmaker was Cal Anderson who died of AIDS in 1995.

The Victory Fund which helps LGBT candidates win office says there are only about 400 openly gay elected officials across the country, out of a total of about 500,000 people.

Nineteen states don't have any openly gay lawmakers in their legislatures. Of those, six - Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia- don't have any openly gay officials at any level.

With 116 openly gay officials, California leads the nation.

On Tuesday in Olympia, Sen. Ed Murray and Rep. Jamie Pedersen filed a bill in the Legislature to expand Washington's domestic partner law to include more than 170 rights and responsibilities that currently are available only to married opposite-sex couples in the state. (story)

The measure would make domestic partnerships equal to marriage in areas of community property, guardianship and powers of attorney. It would allow partners the right to refuse to testify against partners in court. And it provides the same remedies as married couples have in ending a relationship including the division of property.

It has widespread support among Democrats but is opposed by state Republicans.

©365Gay.com 2008

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