This Sunday (Dec. 19, 2010), Washington State Senator Ed Murray will receive the Herman and Margarita Will Peace and Social Justice Award. The award will be presented by First United Methodist Church of Seattle (First Church).
Sen. Murray represents the 43rd District, which includes the southern and eastern parts of the Green Lake neighborhood (you can find a map of the 43rd District here).
Sen. Murray will receive the award for his social justice work and his life-long commitment to building a just and peaceful society. “Few local citizens have done as much to improve the lives of LGBT families as Senator Murray,” said First Church pastor Rev. Dr. Sanford Brown in a press release. “His work has moved Washington State towards a more just future for all Washington families.”
For 15 years Sen. Murray worked in the Washington legislature to pass landmark LGBT civil rights and domestic partnership legislation. Sen. Murray led the 2007 effort to pass Senate Bill 5336, Washington’s historic domestic partnership law. In 2008, he co-sponsored a second bill that vastly expanded the rights, responsibilities, and protections of that law, and in 2009, his final bill in the domestic partnership effort was signed into law. Known as the “Everything but Marriage” act, the law grants all state rights and responsibilities associated with marriage to registered domestic partners.
The award will be presented at First United Methodist Church’s 11 a.m. service on Sunday. First Church is located at 180 Denny Way.
Sen. Ed Murray at a November 15, 2008 anti-Proposition 8 protest
photo credit: joeszilagyi
