(Olympia, Washington) Legislation that would expand Washington’s 2007 Domestic Partner law to provide all of the state rights and benefits of marriage and a bill to legalize same-sex marriage have been filed in the Legislature.

The marriage bill is unlikely to advance this year, but Pedersen said he hoped it would lay the groundwork for the future. The expansion of domestic partnership law has a more likely chance of succeeding.

The original 2007 law provided inheritance rights when there is no will, hospital visitation rights and the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations.

The law was expanded last year to add rights in the 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.

The new provisions adds pension and public employee benefit rights for same-sex couples.

“Although we view this as an improvement that provides real and concrete protections to same-sex partners, it’s an inadequate substitute for marriage,” Pedersen told The Spokesman Review. “Our hope is that the continuing success of this legislation helps people understand what marriage is, and that it gets them more comfortable with treating all families with equality dignity and respect.”

But Pedersen concedes that implementing some parts of the bill may have to wait until the economic situation improves.

Since July 2007 when the original domestic partner law went into effect, 4,940 couples have registered as domestic partners.

Under the law, partners must be 18 or order and not already married or in a domestic relationship with someone else. The law also requires that couples share a home and be financially dependent up one another. It also allows opposite-sex couples to register if one partner is at least 62 years old.