With Bill, Washington State Shifts Its Views on Same-Sex Marriage SEATTLE - The bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Washington State is notable not just for the boldness of its ambition or for the fact that it was proposed by Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat whose last memorable remarks on the issue placed her firmly in the not-yet camp. What is also striking is that some of the legislators sponsoring the measure can recall earlier debates - held years ago and sometimes only internally - in which they were certain they would oppose such a law. "I was a no," recalled Senator Rosemary McAuliffe, a Democrat from the Seattle suburb of Bothell, and now a sponsor. But that was back in the 1990s, when Ms. McAuliffe said an early version of a marriage bill circulated in the Legislature. Over time, the senator said, "I met the families, I met the children of those families, and I had the realization that it is our responsibility to protect all of our citizens against discrimination." The bill, which Ms. Gregoire filed last week, would make Washington the seventh state where same-sex couples are allowed to marry. Washington, D.C., also permits it, and supporters here are cautiously optimistic. The bill sponsors say that they are just a few votes short, and that several undecided lawmakers could vote yes. In 1998, Washington passed a law saying only a man and woman could marry, and the State Supreme Court upheld the law in 2006. But the state has also taken steady steps to expand rights for gay couples. In 2006, it passed a civil rights bill that recognized domestic partnerships. In 2009, it approved what has become known as an "everything but marriage" law. Opponents challenged that law through a ballot referendum, but voters upheld it, 53 to 47 percent. As recently as 2008, when she was seeking her second term, Ms. Gregoire suggested that churches should decide the issue. But in her State of the State address this month, the governor said, "Let's tell the children of our same-sex couples that their parents" relationship is equal to all others in the state." In an interview, the governor, a former state attorney general, said, "I'm a lawyer, I'm a wife, I'm a mom, I'm governor. I'm also a Catholic, and I have struggled with this issue for the last seven years. This is Ms. Gregoire's final year in office (she has decided not to seek a third term), and many people have speculated that she is supporting same-sex marriage only now that the political risk of doing so has diminished. But the governor said her position had evolved, in part through conversations with her two daughters. "They've grown up with kids who've got two moms and two dads, and they just think this generation needs to get over it," she said. The governor said she had been preparing to address the issue this session since the fall. "In the middle of the night, I'd wake up and come up with an argument I heard and I would work through that argument," she said. I think I've attacked straight on any argument that has been advanced on the subject. You can respect the rights of the churches to decide who they will marry, but at the same time you can't sit here as governor and have somebody come into an office say, "I want a license," and say, "No, we're going to discriminate. We're from the state." " The Washington bill is modeled on the law passed by New York last summer, which included language clarifying that religious groups and churches are not required to marry same-sex partners. Senator Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who is chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has been one of the most persistent advocates for same-sex marriage in the Legislature. Mr. Murray said Ms. Gregoire strengthened protections for religious groups beyond what he had proposed to her. Some of the same lawmakers who led opposition to the state's "everything-but-marriage" law and supported the referendum to defeat it say they will organize a coalition to defeat a marriage law, should this bill pass the Legislature. On Friday, a group of Roman Catholic bishops in Washington issued a statement opposing the new bill and praising the state's existing law for recognizing "the unique and irreplaceable potential of a man and woman to conceive and nurture new life, thus contributing to the continuation of the human race." Mr. Murray, noting that Washington's petition-friendly political system makes any bill passed by the Legislature vulnerable, said he and others had worked since last spring to build support behind the scenes, anticipating a battle in the Legislature but also at the polls. "I'm a little concerned that people are popping the Champagne corks," he said. They need to remember it took us years to find one vote on the civil rights bill and we're several votes short on the marriage bill. We're very close, but we don't have the votes yet.