To help win benefits for same-sex partnerships, lawmakers have included heterosexual senior citizen relationships in a bill due to be introduced next week.

Five Democratic lawmakers — the Legislature's unofficial caucus of openly gay members — just held a press conference to promote two bills: One that would legalize same-sex marriages and another creating a domestic partnership registry that would give gays and lesbians the same health-care and death benefits as married couples.

Rookie legislator Jamie Pederson, an attorney, did much of the speaking at the press conference.

The legislation says that for a couple to obtain domestic partnership benefits they either have to be of the same sex or in a heterosexual relationship where one person is at least 62 years old. (They would also have to be at least 18 years old, be living together, not to be married to anyone else, be capable of consenting to the relationship and not be blood relations.)

The bill would allow non-married partners to be involved in health-care decisions, funeral arrangements, authorization of organ donations and other benefits.

It's seen as a first step in marriage equality, said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. As he and other lawmakers pledged to continue pushing for same-sex marriage, they said they would also work to incrementally increase domestic partnership benefits. They recognize that gay marriage will be difficult to get approved by the Legislature and could take years.

In the press conference, Murray said that he and others had met with legislative leaders and Gov. Christine Gregoire to discuss the strategy and got what he termed "positive responses." I asked Murray later what Gregoire said about the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage. He said that while she was supportive of the partnership registry, she was "silent on marriage."

Gregoire has never said much about gay marriage. Until the Supreme Court acted last year she wouldn't say anything at all. After the decision was released she said:

"Family is about love, family is about nurturing, family is about giving your all to your children," she said.

The strategy of leading with the domestic partnership bill may be a way to win support from Democrats who wouldn't support gay marriage. But it won't lessen opposition from conservatives.

Watching the press conference today was Jon Russell from the Faith and Freedom Network, a conservative religious group. Afterwards he told me:

"It's all conditioning and grooming."

Russell uses the same language that some conservative Christians use to describe what they believe is a gay agenda to turn others gay.

"They are conditioning and grooming the public to accept gay marriage."

Russell said the political agenda laid out by Murray and others today was an attempt to get the public used to accepting the idea of same-sex relationships, with an incremental and constant increase in benefits.

"They didn't disguise it at all. They said they weren't going to go away until gay marriage was legal."