SB5688 Domestic Partner Law FAQ
What is the Domestic Partnership Law – SB 5688?
This law was passed by the Legislature in 2009 to ensure that all Washington families are treated the same,
with the same protections, the same rights and the same obligations as their neighbors. Under this law,
registered domestic partners (same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples where at least one partner is
over age 62), and married couples, are treated equally under state law throughout Washington.
What is included in the new law?
Key rights and obligations in the law include:
- Death benefits for the partners of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty
- Pension benefits for the partners of teachers and other public employees
- Victims’ rights, including the right to receive notifications and benefits allowances
- The right to use sick leave to care for a seriously ill partner
- The right to workers’ compensation benefits if a partner is killed in the course of employment
- The right to receive unemployment benefits if an employee must leave a job to care for a seriously ill
- partner
- The right to adopt a partner’s child without paying for a home study
- The areas covered by the law include labor and employment law, pensions, survivor, and other public
- employee benefits, family law, insurance rights, higher education, banks, financial institutions and loan
- agencies, creditors’ rights and business licenses.
What is Referendum 71?
Opponents of the domestic partnership law are seeking to repeal it. Referendum 71 would ask voters
whether the law should be approved or rejected. A vote to “APPROVE” keeps the law so that all families will
have these protections in all parts of the state.