It's a bill that would make Washington the 15th state to add sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination list (which already identifies 10 protected classes such as religion, national origin, race, and--no kidding--whether someone uses a guide dog). The bill first surfaced in Olympia in 1977, when Murray was just 22 years old and Jimmy Carter was president. The bill died repeatedly, until Washington's first openly gay legislator, Cal Anderson, tried to usher the bill through in 1989. Anderson eventually got support for it in the house, but not the senate.
Now Murray, who has finally found enough senate support to pass the bill, is running out of time for the senators to actually vote on it. The legislative session ends April 27, and Murray's bill--which passed the house in March, 59-39--is stuck in a Republican-controlled senate committee. Several voting deadlines have already passed. Plenty of folks in Olympia say the bill is all but dead.
Murray, however, isn't giving up. There's still a chance he can get the bill onto the senate floor before the session ends. "There are ways, procedurally, to pull the bill out [of committee]. People need to have a little faith in my ability to move things through," he said wryly.
The bill should pass once it's on the senate floor, where a majority of senators have already backed it: On April 14, 25 Democrats and three Republicans voted to add Murray's bill to a package of bills they wanted pulled out of committee. However, the entire package--which included bills like the one banning "upskirt photography"--then failed (though not due to Murray's bill), leaving the bills in committee.
Even if Murray can't pull strings to get a vote on the bill by April 27, there's another chance: If Governor Locke, who supports the bill, calls the legislature back for a special session, he can add it to his official proclamation--forcing the senate to vote on it in its own right.
