The Washington State Senate, in an historic action, voted 28 to 21 to legalize marriage between same sex partners.

“We ask for your support tonight because marriage is the way society says you are family,” said State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chief sponsor of the legislation and a gay man in a two-decade partnership.

Regardless of how his colleagues voted, Murray added, they will receive a wedding invite from him. A practicing Catholic, Murray has said he is pained that he will not be able to marry in his church.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve the legislation within a week. Gov. Chris Gregoire, who watched Wednesday night’s debate, has become a passionate advocate of marriage equality at the end of what she described as a “personal journey.”

The bill passed with support from 24 Democrats and four Republicans. Eighteen Republicans and a trio of Democrats — State Sens. Jim Hargrove, Tim Sheldon and Paull Shinn — voted no.

Debate was often emotional.

“As the son of a gay man . . .” began Democratic State Sen. Kevin Ranker, who concluded his speech with the words: “I am proud to stand on the right side of history and to vote for marriage equality and I am proud to stand for my father.”

State Sen. Steve Litzow, a first-term Eastside Republican, was one of the four Republicans to support marriage equality. “I believe an adult should be able to marry the person they love: It’s that simple for me,” said Litzow.

Three other suburban Republicans voted “Yea” — Sens. Cheryl Pflug, Joe Fain and Andy Hill. Fain and Hill, both elected in 2010, were undecided going into the vote.

State Sen. Brian Hatfield, a Democrat from southwest Washington and one of the last to declare in favor, introduced an amendment to put the marriage equality issue to a vote in November. It was defeated by a 26-23 vote.

Washington stands to become the seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples. New York acted last year, like Washington with a bipartisan State Senate vote.

“I believe this will not be the final word on this issue, as it is almost certain the voters of this state will have a chance to weigh in with our collective ‘yea’ or ‘nay’,” said Hatfield.

Opponents will have until early June to collect 120,577 valid voters signatures to force a referendum on same-sex marriage in November.

They succeeded, three years ago, in putting the Legislature’s domestic partnership rights legislation to a statewide vote. The voters approved it.

Follow an updated version of this story here.