Won­der­ful, won­der­ful news to cel­e­brate tonight: After a debate that stretched for more than an hour and a half, and saw the adop­tion and rejec­tion of more than a dozen amend­ments, Wash­ing­ton’s state Sen­ate has vot­ed to approve leg­is­la­tion mak­ing mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land.

The vote was twen­ty-eight to twen­ty-one. Four Repub­li­cans joined near­ly all Democ­rats in vot­ing yes in favor of the bill, SB 6239, prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ed Mur­ray and request­ed by Gov­er­nor Chris Gregoire.

The roll call was as follows:

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Brown, Chase, Con­way, Eide, Fain, Fras­er, Frockt, Harp­er, Hat­field, Hau­gen, Hill, Hobbs, Kas­ta­ma, Keis­er, Kilmer, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Lit­zow, McAu­li­ffe, Mur­ray, Nel­son, Pflug, Pren­tice, Pride­more, Ranker, Regala, Rolfes, and Tom

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Baum­gart­ner, Beck­er, Ben­ton, Car­rell, Delvin, Erick­sen, Har­grove, Hewitt, Holmquist New­bry, Hon­ey­ford, King, Mor­ton, Pad­den, Par­lette, Roach, Schoesler, Shel­don, Shin, Stevens, Sweck­er, and Zarelli

The Repub­li­cans who vot­ed in favor of mar­riage equal­i­ty were Joe Fain, Andy Hill, Steve Lit­zow, and Cheryl Pflug. The Democ­rats who vot­ed against were Jim Har­grove, Paull Shin, and Tim Sheldon.

In a state­ment fol­low­ing the pas­sage of the bill, Mur­ray thanked his col­leagues and all who have worked to help make today’s vote a reality.

“The cit­i­zens of Wash­ing­ton state have come to under­stand that les­bian and gay fam­i­lies are their neigh­bors and their friends,” Mur­ray said. “We share the same short moment of life. We like you seek the chance to live our lives, to expe­ri­ence joy, to care for our fam­i­lies, to con­tribute to our fam­i­lies and to the nation we love.”

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire — who watched the vote from the wings of the Sen­ate cham­ber — released a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing the Sen­ate for approv­ing SB 6239.

“Tonight the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate stood up for what is right and told all fam­i­lies in our state that they are equal and that the state can­not be in the busi­ness of dis­crim­i­na­tion. I believe that this deci­sion should be made by our state Leg­is­la­ture, and I’m proud our elect­ed lead­ers rec­og­nized that respon­si­bil­i­ty. Tonight we saw the best of Wash­ing­ton and our lead­ers. They were respect­ful and they were kind. I thank Sen­a­tor Ed Mur­ray for his leadership.”

“This vote was coura­geous and was only pos­si­ble with bipar­ti­san sup­port. That sup­port shows Washington’s com­mit­ment to equality.”

“Fair-mind­ed and respon­si­ble lead­ers craft­ed a bill that pro­tects reli­gious free­doms while ensur­ing equal rights. I com­mend our state Sen­a­tors who acknowl­edged tonight that sep­a­rate but equal is not equal.”

“Tonight our fam­i­lies are bet­ter for this vote. Our kids have a brighter future for this bill. And our state is bet­ter for this bill. I encour­age the House to approve this bill and get it to my desk for my sig­na­ture. I look for­ward to the day when all Wash­ing­ton cit­i­zens have equal oppor­tu­ni­ty to mar­ry the per­son they love.”

This post will be updat­ed with more details as the evening goes on.