By a 62-to-35 margin, the state House just passed a sweeping bill that extends every state-granted right of marriage to same-sex domestic partners. The state Senate passed the bill by a 30-to-18 vote last month. Governor Gregoire is expected to sign the bill, Gregoire’s staff says.

“We are absolutely delighted,” says Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, a group backing the bill. “This is the fourth consecutive year of strong legislative votes in support of LGBT civil rights and equality.” The legislature previously passed two domestic-partnership laws, which created the domestic-partnership registry and provided a handful of rights to couples, and it passed a civil-rights bill providing protection for lesbian, gay and transgender persons in 2006.

But the current bill may not become law for several months, if at all.

“We are in the process of organizing a referendum… to repeal the domestic-partnership law,” says Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, a conservative religious coalition of two nonprofits and a PAC. He says the group is meeting this afternoon and plans to file paperwork any day. (More on the group's strategy is here.)

Simply filing the paperwork for a referendum would block the bill from becoming law for at least 90 days after the last day of the legislative session (scheduled for April 26 this year), says Shane Hamlin, assistant director of the Secretary of State Office’s election division. The anti-domestic-partnership campaign would have until July 25 to gather 120,577 signatures to qualify for the general election. If the measure qualifies, the bill remains in limbo until the November vote.

Randall says his group may also try to repeal the two previous domestic-partnership laws. That would require filing a separate initiative which needs 241,153 signatures submitted by July 3 to make this year's ballot, the Secretary of State Office says.

“To repeal what the legislature does in this year’s session, they must file a referendum,” says Hamlin. “To repeal something that the legislature did last session, they must run an initiative.”

"If the Faith and Freedom Network really cared about the families they would try to strengthen them by working to help provide basic services to all families," says Friedes, "not by trying to take away basic rights from gay and lesbian families."

Polling released by the University of Washington last October shows 66 percent of voters support either full marriage equality or all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples. "I think [a referendum] is ours to lose. Complacently results in loss," says Friedes.

Before the House voted to pass the measure, Republican representatives introduced several amendments. One of those amendments would have kept any discussion of domestic partnership out of public schools to protect children from hearing about same-sex couples. Also, Representative Glenn Anderson (R-5) warned the bill could mean Washington "will no longer preference, provided incentives, or encourage marriage." Every amendment failed.

News intern Alexander Brown contributed reporting to this post.

Shortly after 1:30 p.m., the state house of representatives will convene to debate and pass the domestic partnership bill, sponsored by Representative Jamie Pedersen (D-43), which would extend every state-granted right of marriage to registered same-sex partners. The bill passed the state Senate by a wide margin in March despite surging opposition from religious conservatives. Now in House, the bill has more cosponsors than votes needed to pass. The debate should be fiery, and viewable streaming from TVW.

But Republicans are attempting two desperate strategies to gum up its progress. “I think they’ve got a couple dozen amendments,” says state Senator Ed Murray (D-43), the prime sponsor of the senate version of the bill. A minority party typically tries to slow down bills by introducing and debating amendments. Murray expects conservatives to introduce amendments “related to children.”

“I think that entering this with a majority of legislators being co-sponsors is a strong indication that we can defeat any negative amendment,” says Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, a nonprofit that has been supporting the bill. “I think the amendments indicate the radical right’s determination to make a bill that is non-controversial with the majority of the legislature and electorate into a controversial bill.”

But conservatives have another trick up their sleeves.

The Faith and Freedom Network, a conservative religious group that maintains two nonprofits and a PAC, is meeting today, planning to file a ballot measure to go before state voters that would repeal Washington’s domestic partnership laws. The group sent a fundraising email to members on Monday seeking donations toward a referendum or an initiative.

Gary Randall, president of FFN, moments ago confirmed: “We are in the process of organizing a referendum.” He says the group has not decided if the measure would seek to repeal only this year’s legislation or would also attempt to reverse the two previously passed domestic-partnership laws. Regardless, he says, “If I didn’t believe it would pass, I wouldn’t put the work into it.”

The state legislature passed domestic partnership laws in 2007 and 2008, granting some rights to same-sex couples. Conservatives never challenged those laws by referendum. However, the bill up for a vote today is by far the most sweeping, by establishing parity of rights for domestic partners as married couples. “It elevates domestic partnerships to the level of marriage," says Randall. "It redefines a number of statements about marriage."

“We are taking a statewide poll this week,” Randall says. “We’ll make the poll public when we get it, unless it’s so ugly that I don’t want to tell anybody.”

The polling results—and the result on a ballot measure—could differ based on how FFN frames the issue. Previous opinion research conducted by the University of Washington showed the majority of state voters support domestic-partnership rights for same-sex couples; however, a majority also oppose full-scale marriage rights for same-sex couples. In recent deceptive television ads against the domestic partnership bill, opponents only described the measure as "marriage"—never acknowledging the bill didn’t use apply to “marriage.” Randall would not divulge the language used in the poll now underway. But it’s almost certain that if the religious conservatives do challenge the domestic-partnership law with a ballot measure, they will continue to disingenuously represent the measure as a defense of marriage.

[Update: The bill passed; info here.]