Dear Editor,

As religious leaders of West Seattle, we have come together to speak with one voice for all families. Religious leaders before us have spoken to end slavery, and to ensure equal rights to all persons regardless of gender, nationality, religion, and race.

Today, we feel compelled to speak out in support of Washington’s domestic partnership law, which provides essential protections to families throughout the state. 
 


As people of faith, we oppose any effort to take away the rights and protections provided to families through our state’s domestic partnership law. 
 
As providers of pastoral care to families, we know that gay and lesbian couples form loving, lasting, committed relationships, raise children and grow old together.

These couples and their children have the same needs and deserve the same rights as their heterosexual peers.

We also know that the domestic partnership law provides important protections to non-gay couples where one partner is at least 62 years of age. 


As faith leaders, we care about all families. We have seen first-hand the burdens on a family facing death or illness without important legal and financial protections, from access to healthcare, to the right to visit a partner in the hospital, to the right to make medical decisions for one’s own children.

We have felt the worry that exists when a parent who is a firefighter or police officer goes off to work each morning knowing that if something happens to her there won’t be support for her family. 
 


We urge all to vote YES on Ref. 71, as a principled expression of our deeply held religious convictions. We urge our congregants to stand in support of all of Washington’s families.

In faith,

Rev. Kendall Baker, Retired, United Church of Christ
Rev. Peg Boyle Morgan, Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown, Tibbetts Methodist Church
Rev. Diane Darling, Alki Congregational United Church of Christ
Rev. Ann J. Eidson, Admiral Congregational Church
Rev. David Kratz, Fauntleroy United Church of Christ Church
Erik P. Kindem, Peace Lutheran Church
Rabbi Anson Laytner, Congregation Kol HaNeshamah
Rev. Mark Newton, Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Rev. Paul Winterstein, Calvary Lutheran Church