WA Methodist Group Endorses Marriage

A splinter group of Methodists has endorsed Referendum 74, which would uphold Washington state's recently passed marriage equality bill.

The United Methodist Church in the Northwest, at odds with its parent denomination, has endorsed Referendum 74 and called on voters to make Washington the nation’s seventh state to enact same-sex marriage. The church’s Pacific Northwest Annual Conference passed a resolution worded to “encourage all people to approve Referendum 74 so that the Marriage Equality Act can be put into law.” Same-sex marriage was approved by the Legislature in February and signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire, but opponents gathered the requisite 120,577 valid voter signatures to force a vote in November.