Governor Gregoire wields her pen:
With the signing, Washington also becomes the first state in the country to strike down state law that specifically limits marriage to one man and one woman. … Monday's signing doesn't mean that same-sex couples in Washington can marry immediately. Changes in the state's marital law won't take effect for 90 days, until June 7 — at the earliest.
And it will likely be later, since equality opponents are mounting a referendum campaign:
The divisions between anti-gay activists run deep. The somewhat more measured Fuiten, for example, has long feuded with incendiary Pastor Ken Hutcherson. Whereas both men run hardline mega churches on the Eastside, Fuiten spurned the 2009 campaign to overturn a domestic partnership law that Hutcherson and Backholm supported. Fuiten may have ties to the money, though. He announced earlier this month that he'd secured $1 million from an out-of-state donor, who, by all likely calculations, is the Catholic-church-linked National Organization for Marriage.
All that said, divisions in 2009 didn't stop their referendum from making the ballot (ultimately their campaign failed, though). If they make it to the ballot again with this bill—as seems certain with all that Catholic cash—marriage will remain in limbo until the fall election.
More local coverage here. Joe Perez, a gay Seattlite, rejoices over the signing:
Our vision is evolutionary, inclusive, and spiritual. Gay marriage is an evolution of culture and society in all its dimensions — a sign of God and Spirit in our midst — a holy and good thing not merely because it lets gay people have hospital visitation rights but because it is an expression of the inherent dignity of gay people as equally manifestations of God.
The Dish 