The Washington state Senate voted 28 in favor (including four Republicans) to 21 against late Wednesday evening to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage. The bill now goes to the House, where it's expected to pass, and Governor Chris Gregoire has already said she will sign it. So basically, the hard part is over and gay and lesbian couples will be able to get married by June unless crabby homophobes can muster around 120,000 signatures before that time to force a referendum.

Who knows if anti-equality organizations will be able to gather that many signatures, but from the sound of the AP story, there weren't many of them interested enough to show up to the vote:

Gay marriage opponent Jane Sterland, 56, stood outside the Senate gallery before the debate started. Sterland said she was disappointed by the light turnout of same-sex marriage foes.

"It saddens me that there aren't more Christians here tonight," she said. "I'm just very grieved about this whole thing. I want to be here for prayer support against this issue."

Poor, sad, lonely homophobe.

[Image via AP]