17 percent of Washington marriages now same-sex couples

It’s been one year since Washington’s same sex marriage law went into effect, and more than 7,000 couples have taken advantage of the new opportunity.

“One of the interesting things is there have been about twice as many women couples as there have been men,” says Tim Church with the Washington State Department of Health.

Of the 7,071 same sex marriages that have been performed from December 6, 2012 to September 30, 2013, about 4,300 were between women, and 2,600 between men.

The state has collected about nine months of data. It shows an increase in marriages overall of about 5,000. Church believes the same sex marriage law has a lot to do with that.

“There was absolutely a pent-up demand for people who wanted to get married,” says Church. “When Washington’s law went into effect, people in Washington and people from Oregon, Idaho and other states came here to get married.”

The health department reports in 24 percent of the cases both spouses live in another state. Of those, 524 of the couples live in Oregon, 170 in Texas, and 155 are from California.

Whether they are from Washington or some other state, most of the gay marriages performed took place in King County – 3,452 reported. Church says that’s not surprising, since King County has the largest population.

The only Washington county not to perform any same-sex weddings was Garfield. But, with the smallest population, they only had 8 marriages altogether in that nine-month period.

For many couples, marriage is not a life-long commitment. About one in every 100 married couples get divorced each year in Washington State. There is no data yet that specifically pertains to same-sex couples.