Gay City TV talks with One Degree Events' Egan Orion about Gay City's sponsorship of Seattle's 2011 PrideFest.

(Reuters) - Governor Christine Gregoire plans to sign newly passed legislation on Monday to legalize gay marriage in Washington state, making it the seventh with a law on the books to recognize same-sex nuptials, her office said on Thursday.

A statehouse signing ceremony in Olympia, Washington's capital, was slated for 11:30 a.m. local time on Monday. The bill won final legislative approval from the state House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 55-43.

(Reuters) - The Washington state House of Representatives was expected to endorse gay marriage on Wednesday in a vote that would move the state another step closer to becoming the seventh to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Floor debate was scheduled to begin in the afternoon, with supporters and opponents predicting the measure would win House passage by at least as comfortable a margin as it took to clear the Senate, on a 28-21 vote, a week ago.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, paving the way for a likely U.S. Supreme Court showdown on the voter-approved law.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 Tuesday that a lower court judge interpreted the U.S. Constitution correctly in 2010 when he declared the ban, known as Proposition 8, to be a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

The 9th Circuit Court recently announced via their website that they intend to publish their opinion in the Perry v. Brown case on the constitutionality of Prop 8 in California. You can read their notice here.