The Supreme Court in the state of Washington ruled that the state can restrict marriage to only being between a man and a woman. The final vote was 5-4. The decision bans gay marriage in the state of Washington.
Nineteen same-sex couples had sued the state seeking to overturn the 1998 amendment to the state constitution that banned gay marriage. Judges in two counties had overturned the amendment but the state appealed, saying it had an interest in regulating relationships that produce children. The Supreme Court has now sided with the state.
Judge Barbara Madsen wrote that the state had the right to 'promote procreation and to encourage stable families.'
Madsen's majority decision added that, 'The legislature was entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers the State's legitimate interests in procreation and the well-being of children.'
The majority decision did note that the state 'may want to re-examine the impact of the marriage laws on all citizens of this state.'
The court's decision was deeply divided with three judges signing the majority decision, two concurring with it and three different dissenting opinions.
One of the dissenters, Justice Mary Fairhurst, wrote that the majority and concurring opinions 'condone blatant discrimination against Washington's gay and lesbian citizens in the name of encouraging procreation, marriage for individuals in relationships that result in children, and the raising of children in homes headed by opposite-sex parents, while ignoring the fact that denying same-sex couples the right to marry has no prospect of furthering any of those interests.'
Massachusetts is now the only state remaining that permits gay couples to marry. A total of 45 states now specifically ban unions between same sex couples. An attempt to pass a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage recently failed in Congress.
