Out state legislators in Washington are celebrating the State Senate’s passage of two LGBT rights bills — one of which expands the rights granted to same-sex couples under the state’s existing domestic partnership law, while the other expands the state’s hate crimes statue to include transgender people. Both bills were introduced by openly gay legislators — Sens. Ed Murray and Joe McDermott, respectively.

According to the Associated Press, the first bill builds upon previous domestic partnership laws by adding reference to partnerships alongside all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are mentioned, statutes ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits.

The AP reports:

The underlying domestic partnership law, which Murray spearheaded two years ago, provided hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will.

Last year, lawmakers expanded that law to give domestic partners standing under laws covering probate and trusts, community property and guardianship.

As of Tuesday, 5,112 domestic partnership registrations had been filed since the law took effect in July 2007.

In addition, out Sen. Joe McDermott passed a bill that adds transgender people to the state’s Malicious Harassment Statute. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 36-12 with broad bipartisan support.

“When ’sexual orientation’ was added to our Hate Crimes law years ago, transgendered was not included in the definition,” McDermott wrote on his blog. “Three years ago when we passed the Anti-Discrimination Statute we included transgendered in that definition of sexual orientation. I am exceptionally proud of this progress for transgendered persons tonight.”

Both bills now move to the Washington state House of Representatives.

Three Washington state legislators and one judicial candidate advanced in their primary elections last night.

Judicial candidate Jean Rietschel (right), Sen. Joe McDermott and Reps. Jamie Pedersen and Marko Liias all finished in the top two of their non-partisan primaries. Two of the candidates, McDermott and Pedersen, ran unopposed.

The candidates:

• Jean Rietschel has served as a municipal judge for 12 years, but now seeks a seat on the King County Superior Court. She has long supported HIV/AIDS activism and education by providing pro-bono representation work as an attorney under a program from the King County Bar Association with people affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Joe McDermott won an appointment to his Senate seat in October of last year after serving in the state House for six years. He helped pass the Domestic Partnership Registry in 2007, giving state-registered domestic partners some basic protections for their families, such the right to visit a partner in the hospital, the right to make health care decisions and the right to make funeral arrangements.
• Jamie Pedersen first won a seat in the Washington House in 2006. In his short time in the House he was the prime sponsor for the passage of the Washington State Domestic Partner Registry. He also served on Lambda Legal’s national board for seven years and worked as Lambda Legal’s lead volunteer lawyer on the state’s same-sex marriage case, Andersen v. King County in 2006.
• Marko Liias won an appointment to the state House after serving on the Mukilteo City Council since 2005. Born in 1981, Marko serves on the national board for the National Association of Homebuilders and is a member of Built Green of King and Snohomish Counties.