On December 6th 2012, hundreds of Washington couples and their families gathered in courthouses, places of worship and family homes alike to commit their lives to each other.
That day was the culmination of countless years of efforts from House Democrats, our allies – Republican and Democrat, and, most importantly, the everyday activists who spoke out on their own behalf or a loved one’s.
That’s right – last Friday was the one-year anniversary of marriage equality in our state.
To mark the occasion, the Department of Health released the following data on marriage equality’s inaugural year:
It’s the one year anniversary of the state’s same sex marriage law, and the latest statistics shows same sex couples made up 17 percent of marriages in Washington in that time. Between the law’s effective date, December 6, 2012, and the most recent complete month of data, September 30, 2013, there were 7,071 same sex couples among the 42,408 total couples who married in the state during that period of time.
…The top five Washington counties where same sex marriages occurred were King County with 3,452; Clark County with 785; Pierce County with 486; Snohomish County with 330; and Thurston County with 300 marriages. Garfield County is the only county in Washington where no same sex marriages were performed. These numbers may not represent the number of marriage licenses granted by these counties.
It appears Washington’s same sex marriage law is drawing people to the state to marry. In 24 percent of same sex marriages, both spouses live in another state. There were 524 same sex marriages in which both parties lived in Oregon. For 170 same sex marriages, the couple lived in Texas, and, for 155 same sex marriages, the couple lived in California. Among opposite sex couples, both spouses were from another state in only 6 percent of marriages.
You can read the complete report over at the Department of Health’s website.
We were on hand for the festivities at King County Courthouse last year. Here are just a few of our favorite images from that special day.
