Jim Brunner has the story:

Leaders of Washington United for Marriage, a coalition of dozens of gay-rights, civil-liberties, labor and religious groups, say they'll pressure the Legislature to pass a marriage equality law in 2012, and are prepared to defend it from any referendum challenge.

A group of Democratic state lawmakers has committed to introducing and advancing the legislation. While expressing confidence about their chances in the state House, backers cautioned they do not have the votes at this point in the state Senate.

"We're going to push it," said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, a gay lawmaker from the 43rd district and a leader in the marriage effort.

This is great news. If things go well, they will go like this: A marriage equality bill will pass the state house easily, it will wiggle through the state senate by one or two votes, Christian dick-suckers will gather signatures to put it on the ballot by referendum, and then voters can uphold same-sex marriage on the ballot. Sound like a long shot? Murray will have no better chance to pass marriage in the next four years than 2012, when a presidential race will draw a younger, more liberal electorate. And now three polls (most recently this one) show marriage has majority support with state voters. Even so, as I recently reported, the religious right is already gearing up to stop them at the ballot.