And let me tell you, the anti-gay woods are a very dark and scary place.

So we've all heard now that Oregon's Tennessee's Arizona's... Let's try this again. Ech hem.

So we've all heard that out-of-state (though parading around as Oregonians) anti-gay groups have called it quits on attempts to repeal Oregon's Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws. Obviously great news as no one was looking forward to another six million dollar ballot measure campaign, the bad news great news is that they're bringing it back for a 2010 ballot initiative. And to be clear, I would never welcome a ballot measure campaign, but given that repeated polling indicates that the majority of Oregonian's honestly don't give a shit about committed gay and lesbian couples getting domestic partnered and also indicates that Oregon's overwhelmingly support Oregon's anti-discrimination law, bring it on.

Because if Oregonian's care little about repealing our Domestic Partnership law now, in 2010 these out-of-state religious zealots will be viewed as an even more hostile threat to our society than even now. So bring it.

The Actual Bad News
The one thing that could come to bite us in the ass very soon is the Lemons v. Bradbury case. Pro-equality Oregonians won the first battle, but the Arizona based 'Alliance Defense Fund' has appealed and it will now be heard by a three judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments will be heard in Portland on the morning of Tuesday, July 8. It's simply just another round in the legal battle, though if lost, could have serious consequences by putting at least of of these laws on the ballot in November 2008.

Lemons v. Bradbury was brought on by the 'Alliance Defense Fund' late last year after attempts to put the DP and AD laws on the ballot. They failed at collecting enough signatures after making their way through the verification process. For more on Lemons v. Bradbury visit Basic Rights Oregon's site here.

That's all for now folks.

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon

On April 29, the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted plaintiffs' motion for expedited review in Lemons v. Bradbury, the lawsuit filed by out-of-state groups seeking to revive last year's failed referendum against Oregon's domestic partnership law by forcing elections officials to change the way they treat signatures on voter petitions. The original review schedule set by the Court likely would have resulted in a decision sometime next year, but Friday's order means the case could be decided as early as July.

Basic Rights Oregon has more information including updated Lemons v Bradbury timeline, court docs etc. That's here.

Related posts from Gay Rights Watch:

BREAKING: Basic Rights Oregon Files Motion to Intervene

Judge Mosman Grants BRO's Motion to Intervene in Lemons v Bradbury

Right Now In Oregon Federal Court Your Future is Being Decided

I'm Sorry. This is Bullshit, I Need to Vent.

OREGON WINS: DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS GO INTO EFFECT

Labels: anti gay, appeal, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, federal court, lemons v bradbury, oregon

After failing on their first attempt to overturn Oregon's Anti-Discrimination and Domestic Partnership laws, Oregon's anti-gays (who actually live in Tennessee) have admitted possible failure. More importantly they are claiming a possible failure on IP 146 which is Oregon's Domestic Partnership law. This means that Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law would be the only one on the ballot come November if they can muster up the signatures for it.

I have to question their logic. Have they not done polling? Quite obviously they haven't - as multiple polls indicate a record number of Oregonians support this anti-discrimination law.

For more background on the whole debacle, see our post from yesterday (here & here). I highly recommend reading it as it explains all the background details.

In an email to supporters, David Crowe from "Restore America" said the following:

Initiative 144 is legally flawed and apparently beyond use. Now corrected, it has been refiled by Marylin Shannon, as Initiative 146.

The process described above is underway on 146, and it may well be too late to get to the people for signature and then to the Elections Division by the deadline, which is July 3rd.

The likelihood is that we will have just enough time to get enough signatures for 145 on the ballot, but not 146.

Again, they need about 83,000 signatures to qualify - meaning they need to shoot for well over 100,000 to actually make it unless they have an incredibly clean list without many mistakes.

If they do make it even just an attempt to repeal the anti-discrimination law then I predict a very nasty campaign from their side, the likes of which we haven't seen since the days of Lon Mabon. At the same time I do wonder how they will finance their anti-gay crusade. It could easily cost millions if history is correct. Back in 2004 Basic Rights Oregon spent roughly 3 million dollars to fight Measure 36 and the opposition group is struggling to even get $25,000 and they are almost 7k in the hole.

Oy vey. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday folks.

Labels: anti-discrimination, anti-gay, domestic partnership, oregon

Could it be? Shall we plan celebration parties already? Well not quite yet - but on the heels of Basic Rights Oregon appealing (to the Oregon Supreme Court) the language of two initiatives (IP 144 & IP 145) that would aim to repeal Oregon's newly enacted Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws, and the possibility of the same thing happening to the third filed by anti-gays... they may be up shit creek.

Yesterday we talked about the group "Concerned Oregonians" who actually happens to be led by David Crowe who now resides in Tennessee. Make of that what you will. In any case - their desperate pleas for tens of thousands of dollars, even if answered, would still leave their anti-gay crusade in limbo. And funny enough currently it looks as though they are in debt.

Giving credit where credit is due.
Basic Rights Oregon has proven once again that it will relentlessly fight these initiative attempts to strip families of their basic rights as citizens of this state. Thanks BRO! (ech hem - donate here)

Credit should also be given to everyday Oregonians. Oregonian's don't see this as a Measure 36 - and rightly so. They see this simply for what it is, workplace protections against blatant discrimination and as I said above, the ability to legally provide and care for your family.

No victory dance yet folks.
Again, lets not get our hope up too high. But come July when anti-gay forces must turn in over 83,000 valid signatures to qualify and they can't do it - I'll be the first cracking open that bottle of bubbly.

Counting down the days.
Just think, each and every day that this bigoted attempt to strip Oregon families and individuals of their basic human rights is delayed, that's just another day these folks cannot gather signatures.

Related:
Appeal to Oregon Supreme Court Sparks Delay in Anti-Gay Plans

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon, supreme court

Basic Rights Oregon delivered today. They're taking the fight to the Oregon Supreme Court. Just Out is reporting that BRO may in fact be holding up the anti-gay initiatives by appealing to the OSC.

Via JustOut:

Basic Rights Oregon's legal representation - Margaret Olney, of Smith, Diamond and Olney, representing BRO's Jeana Frazzini and Frank Dixon - have just filed appeals to the state Supreme Court regarding Attorney General Hardy Myers' certified ballot titles for Initiatives 144 and 145, initiatives designed to repeal the Oregon Family Fairness Act and the Oregon Equality Act, respectively, according to documents obtained from the Secretary of State Elections Divisions Office.

According to state Elections Division compliance specialist Summer Davis, the Supreme Court could take "up to several months" to deliver an opinion on the appeals," depending on what other items "are on the Court's plate," though state law charges the Court to address the appeals "in an expeditious manner," although, she added: "Expeditious is not defined."

This could prove to be a major setback for Concerned Oregonians, the umbrella group organizing behind the repeal initiatives. In a recent email to supporters, the organization had said it was anticipating having petitions "printed and delivered to distribution sites hopefully by April 26th," though the current Supreme Court appeals could set their efforts back at least several weeks' time, if not longer - as petitions cannot be circulated until the Supreme Court's final judgment is delivered. Locations of potential petition distribution sites and self-described "collection goals" are posted on the Concerned Oregonians website.

Davis also said the Court was not required to take into consideration in its decision the final deadline by which the initiatives' sponsors were required to turn in their signatures: the deadline (82,769 valid signatures are required) is 5 pm on Thursday, July 3. “They’re under no obligation to issue their opinion or final judgment based on when signatures are due," Davis said.

And in other news Amy Ruiz at the PDX Mercury had this to say on the anti-gay group "Concerned Oregonians" lack of funding. It sure seems like they have bigger concerns than just stripping away the rights of families. They have no money. I have to question how far they will get if they were to get on the ballot. It's going to be a multi-million dollar campaign and they are begging and pleading for a mere $50k?

The campaign to repeal Oregon's new domestic partnership and anti-discrimination laws is in bigger trouble than I thought. For starters, though the groups involved only have until early July to gather up tens of thousands of signatures on each of the two initiatives, they haven't been cleared to start collecting signatures yet. Clock's ticking, as they say.

[...]

Yep, the sky is falling in Concerned Oregon. It takes a lot of cash to fund a statewide signature gathering campaign, and they've only collected $4,385.00. The Concerned Oregonians PAC-which, according to their filing, exists to oppose the land use Measure 49-has $517.06 in the bank as of this writing, but enough outstanding accounts payable to put them in the hole by $6,191.70.

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon, supreme court

Racist and homophobic Oregon State Senator Gary George and Sal Esquivel made a stupid mistake when filing IP 144 to repeal Oregon's Domestic Partnership law - the language in the initiative petition read "civil unions". Not surprisingly it took them this long to figure out the problem. They just re-filed, making it IP 146.

Based on IP 144, Basic Rights Oregon and the ACLU filed comments with the state to throw out IP 144 due to the fact that it was, well - without fact.

So here we go. Oregon's most extreme are officially going after a repeal of something as basic as Oregon's Domestic Partnership law. Maybe they should follow in the footsteps of some other evangelical organizations in the news recently who are going after issues that people actually feel a moral obligation to combat. See Evangelical Group Seeks To Move Away From Anti-Gay Focus.

More to come.

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the State of Oregon to reject the draft ballot initiative (IP 145) to repeal the Oregon Equality Act - an anti-discrimination law for sexual minorities - based on the initiative's "unconstitutionality and incomprehensibility," according to initiaitive comments filed this week with the Oregon Secretary of State.

Additional letters of comment came both from the ACLU and Basic Rights Oregon, addressing a range of concerns regarding the initiative's language, the contentious draft ballot title, and the very comprehensibility of the initiative.

According to the Secretary of State Elections office, any letters seeking dismissal of a proposed ballot initiative are passed onto Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, who ultimately decides on the certification fate of ballot initiatives.

The response from Myers - including a certified ballot title, if so approved - is expected April 8 for IP 144, and April 9 for IP 145.

Via Just Out.

Labels: aclu, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm, Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire will sign the Domestic Partnership expansion bill.

Way to go Washington! Another step toward full equality.

Related posts:

Washington House Passes Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill

Washington Senate Passes Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill

Labels: domestic partnership, washington

And sadly they are letting all of Oregon down by attempting to crush the Oregon dream for the minority. These four desperate Oregon Republican lawmakers are trying to repeal Oregon's Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws.

Here are their pretty little faces.

Signed on to attempt to repeal Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law:

Oregon Senator Gary George


Oregon State Representative Kim Thatcher


Signed on to repeal Oregon's Domestic Partnership law:

Oregon State Senator Sal Esquivel


Oregon State Senator Fred Girod


Oregon's already decrepit Republican Party who owes over $265,000 in debts including the IRS for back taxes - stoops to another low. With their sad IRS news hitting newspapers within recent weeks - maybe they saw this as a good time to shift the focus on the gays again. Those damn gays.

More details coming soon.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon

After already passing the Washington State House 62-32 back in February, the Senate today voted to 29-20 to pass a bill that would add roughly 160 rights, responsibilities and protection to same-sex couples and their families.

Washington's existing Domestic Partnership bill currently consists of about a dozen rights and responsibilities.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed the previous Domestic Partnership bill (2007) in addition to an Anti-Discrimination bill back in 2006. She has consistently supported pro-equality legislation and has already indicated her support for this legislation - meaning it should be signed very soon.

Congrats Washington!

Labels: domestic partnership, washington

Hey gays! Have you ever wanted to be two people at the same time? Well now you can!

It looks as though gay and lesbian couples who register as Domestic Partners in Oregon are running into expensive roadblocks when it comes to establishing their own identity - and no not their sexual identity - their actual names.

Under Oregon's Domestic Partnership law you are able to take you partner's name, or as many do, hyphenate your last names. Sounds great right? Well sure, you no longer have to pay to legally change your name in Oregon. The complication comes at the federal level. Try telling the Social Security Administration that you have changed your name. 'You are who? No you aren't.", they will say to you.

So this is what happens. Your name is legally changed at the state level but in no way shape or form is that recognized by federal agencies like the Social Security Admin. So you basically have two names. Could get quite confusing in hundreds of situations even with passports.

The only way around this is to pay a $200 fee to the feds. So now a family has to pay hundreds just for what should be a no brainer.

As one couple told us:

We went ahead and petitioned the court to allow us to change our names legally because we found out that the Social Security office would not honor our DP certificate as a legal name change doc. So we had to pay $200.00 for something that we would have received automatically if we were a man/woman couple.

Just another example of an inequity in Oregon's Domestic Partnership law. Something that a straight couple who gets married never even has to think about.

Related Post:
OR Domestic Partnership Law Already Bleeding Inequities

Labels: domestic partnership, oregon

This sort of makes you wonder what other situations a couple may run into in times of crisis. Take a medical emergency. Should we all be prepared with our Declaration of Domestic Partnership Forms to bring to the hospital if something terrible was to happen to our domestically partnered other half?

Imagine a straight married couple having to bring their marriage license to the hospital just for their husband or wife to prove that they are actually just that - their husband of wife.

Picture it... "Oh what? My husband was shot? OK I will be a little late to the hospital, I need to run home to get my marriage certificate."

When Sally Sparks and her partner, Heather Dugas, registered as domestic partners at the Multnomah County Building the day the new state law took effect on February 4, Sparks was overdue with their second child.

"It was a good feeling that [the law] went through and we were going to walk into the hospital as domestic partners," Sparks says.

When their son was born on February 10, Sparks and Dugas made sure to bring their certificate of domestic partnership to the hospital, just in case.

[..]

The law took effect in time for their son's birth, but the women still ran into red tape. Instead of noting Dugas' name on the birth certificate forms -- which had not changed to reflect the new law, and only had spaces for a mother and father -- a clerk at Providence St. Vincent Family Maternity Center handed her a separate form. Marked "For informational purposes only. This is not a legal document," the form has spaces for info on the child, mother, and partner. According to a note from the hospital clerk to Sparks, the form is "supplied to the state to be kept with your son's birth certificate."

Read about the whole debacle over at the Portland Mercury.

Labels: domestic partnership, oregon

Washington State's Domestic Partnership expansion bill passes House 62-32.

Moments ago the Washington House of Representatives passed the 2008 Domestic Partnership Bill. This is a tremendous step forward in our work to protect LGBT families while we continue the fight to secure full marriage equality in Washington State.

The bill now moves to the Senate where we are confident that with continued hard work we can pass the bill. The governor a longtime supporter of civil rights for all Washingtonians has already indicated her support for this legislation. Still, we will take nothing for granted.

At stake is more than the 160 rights and responsibilities that the over 3,400 couples who have registered since July 23rd will receive when the bill becomes law. This bill is creating important media and lobbying opportunities to help elected leaders and the public understand the problems facing LGBT individuals & families.

via Equal Rights Washington

Related Posts:

Washington State Senate Passes Domestic Partnerships Bill

Washington Governor Signs Domestic Partnership Bill

Washington Domestic Partnership Law Effective Monday

Washington's Domestic Partnership Law in Effect

Labels: domestic partnership, legislature, washington

At last count at 4pm this afternoon, Multnomah County had registered 126 same-sex couples as Domestic Partners. We assume that number went up as the day ended.

Obviously this does not include the other 35 counties in Oregon. For some reason I thought that there would be a lot more couples in line today, though then again there isn't a huge rush as there was in Multnomah County back in 2004 during the stint with marriages. It seems that couples may not view it this time around as "we better do it today as it may not be here tomorrow", and they shouldn't view it as that. We're good here in Oregon, at least for the time being.

It's pretty amazing to think back to the 2005 legislative session where our bill passed the Senate only to be killed in the House by former Republican Speaker Karen Minnis. I remember those rallies on the steps of the capitol, the hearings and the floor sessions as if they were yesterday. A very short video from my digital camera from way back when is below.



Then came 2006 when Oregon's GLBT community, led by Basic Rights Oregon, was determined to change the make up of the legislature into one that was fair-minded. I remember election night (at least the early part of the night) when a blue wave swept over Oregon. It was an incredible victory. There was no doubt that it would be an uphill battle even in the Democrat controlled legislature, but we knew that victory was ours for the taking.

Snap forward to May 9th, the day that the Governor signed into law two landmark bills. Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law that went into effect on January 1st, 2007 and Oregon's Domestic Partnership law - that although delayed for a little over a month - is the law of the land as of today.

Here is video from the historic signing:





What a fantastic day to be an Oregonian.

Labels: domestic partnership, oregon

This morning marked the first day that Oregon's Domestic Partnership law was officially back on the books after Friday's ruling in an Oregon federal court.

Hundreds of couples lined up at county offices across the state to officially get registered as Domestic Partners (congrats to all of you!). In Portland, some arrived at the Multnomah County Building near the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge as early as 4 a.m. to get in line for the building's 8 a.m. opening.

We'll bring you more pictures throughout the day.

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon, portland

I could not be more proud of my former coworker Jeana Frazzini (see video below) who has just in the last month filled the shoes of BRO's Executive Director. Hats off to her for an amazing job well done as well as to the staff at Basic Rights Oregon. And congrats to all our Oregonians! Fairness, justice and equality have had a bumpy ride - but Domestic Partnerships are the law!

The case, though won, will be appealed by the anti-gay, out-of-state groups. Be confident though as this ruling was incredibly strong - stating that the plaintiffs arguments had no constitutional basis.

Join Basic Rights Oregon in Portland Monday evening at Holocene for a major celebration at 6-11pm. Holocene is at 1001 SE Morrison, just up the road from the Multnomah County Building.

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, lemons v bradbury, video

In an unexpected ruling from the bench today at about 4:20pm, Judge Mosman through out the case by out-of-state, anti-gay forces, allowing Oregon's Domestic Partnership law to go into effect immediately.

The ruling prompted applause and cheering in front of the courthouse and was greeted by honking cars passing by on SW 3rd Ave downtown.

Here are the details of what happened in the courtroom (via Just Out):

Only two witnesses, handwriting experts, were called today to be cross examined (all witnesses submitted their testimony by deposition). Heather Carlson, a forensics expert who trains clerks in the elections office, made a very weak case for the standard by which clerks use in determining the genuineness of signatures. Mosman later chastised the Secretary of State on that count.
Throughout the hearing, the plaintiffs, the Alliance Defense Fund, attempted to argue that signers of petition 303, which attempted to refer Oregon's domestic partnership law to voters, were constitutionally entitled to have their signatures counted, just as participants are in the vote-by-mail process.

The Secretary of State's attorney and Basic Rights Oregon's attorney argued that these signatures were not at all protected by the strict scrutiny of voters on ballots and that the petition process is actually at the whim of the petition controller, who is by no means a state official.

Although Mosman's ruling from the bench was swift, it was thorough. He engaged with attorneys throughout their closing arguments, asking both sides tough questions and citing a range of precedent that only the attorneys were following.
Mosman's ruling, which he said would be available this evening by clicking here, basically stated that the state never promised petition signers that their "votes" would be counted, therefore, they were not entitled to due process (he acknowledged this was a cruel thing to say) such as having their signatures rehabilitated.

Mosman agreed that calling every "disenfranchised" signer, which statistically represented 20 other signers, would place an unrealistic burden on the Secretary of State's office, which has 30 days to verify the signatures. He further said it was impractical to let one person speak for 20.

Alliance Defense Fund attorney Austin Nimocks told the media after the hearing that this was a sad day for Oregonians who sign petitions with the belief that our voices will be heard. He confirmed everyone's guess that an appeal will be filed. He would not extrapolate.

Marylin Shannon, a spokeswoman for the ad hoc committee of petition gatherers, also confirmed that she was ready to call on her resources for a reversal of this ruling.

Jeana Frazzini spoke for Basic Rights Oregon, saying that although she was surprised that Mosman ruled today, the outcome was expected. "I expected to win on the merits of this case," she said.

In any case, same-sex couples here in Oregon now have Domestic Partnerships. Though it is the law right this second, county buildings will not be open until 9am on Monday morning.

We'll be down at the county building snapping some photos at the Multnomah County building here in Portland and we will bring you those photos of this amazing, long awaited day.

What a long, long journey this has been.

IMPORTANT DETAILS IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GETTING DOMESTIC PARTNERED:
Oregon has already made the Declaration of Domestic Partnership form available (they sure wasted no time getting this up!). you can download them here: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/chs/order/dp.shtml. IMPORTANT: This MUST be printed on legal size paper for them to accept it.

For additional details - please visit Basic Rights Oregon's Domestic Partnership Resource Guide located here.

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, lemons v bradbury, oregon

The judge ruled against the anti-gay. out-of-state bigots on ALL COUNTS.

Come 9AM on Monday morning same-sex couples can get a Domestic Partnership.

More to come.

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, lemons v bradbury, oregon

I just got a text message from a very reliable source saying that the judge in Lemons v Bradbury has ruled in our favor - meaning Oregon's Domestic Partnership law goes into effect.

There may be an appeal - BUT the injunction has been lifted!

More to come and I hope I'm not juming the gun. The text message said "We Won".

AMAZING. Oregon, welcome your domestic partnerships.

Labels: domestic partnership, lemons v bradbury, oregon

Thanks Portland Mercury!

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon

I just published a very matter of fact post on today's court hearing, but what doesn't come through is my incredible anger, disgust and contempt (and as most of you know, I typically don't have a problem holding back my feelings on this blog).

I'm outraged that these out-of-state, anti-gay extremist groups who have infiltrated the courts are parading around as "trying to fix the process". It's a lie. It's a joke. It's bullshit.

Up until the point that they filed suit, all they spouted was anti-gay filth. Absolute filth. The Portland based attorney brought in on the anti-gay side by the out-of-state group was there at the legislative hearings on the bill. He testified against the bills - and not only in 2007, but in 2005. He has a long track record.

These forces are masquerading themselves as saints attempting to alter the Oregon initiative process - when in reality it has little to do with the process itself, but the end result. The end result being to advance their extremist, out-of-state, anti-gay agenda here in Oregon.

They are blind to the facts of the issue. Blind to the fact that these INCREDIBLY basic rights and responsibilities that come with Oregon's Domestic Partnerships do nothing more, though more importantly nothing less than grant committed same-sex couples and their families safety and security. The basic right to take care of one another in times of crisis.

So hey, fuck you, fuck your falsehoods, fuck your lies and fuck your "god". For my God is one of love and compassion, not one of hatred and bigotry. Leave us alone and get the hell out of Oregon - this is not your state to screw over and you have NO right to attack my family and steal what is not yours for the taking. You have tainted my state and for that the people of Oregon will not forget you. You are a stain in our history books.

Be it in Lemons v. Bradbury - or in November when Oregonians decide, fairness, justice and equality will prevail. Lets not forget a major ruling back in Parman v Oregon earlier this year. Judge Eric Bloch ruled that if Oregon's Domestic Partnership law did not go into effect, it would cause a "constitutional crisis".

So no matter what - Domestic Partnerships will happen, it is just a matter of when and these anti-gay groups need to realize that they are fighting the inevitable.

Whew. Glad I got that out.

Labels: anti-gay, domestic partnership, federal court, lawsuit, oregon

Starting at 10am this morning, a federal court has been hearing from both sides of the Lemons v. Bradbury issue.

They'll here from a myriad of people including the Secretary of State's office, handwriting experts, anti-gay attorney's from the Alliance Defense Fund and of course Basic Rights Oregon and their counsel.

While the fate of Oregon's Domestic Partnership law may or may not be decided today - at least we have made it to this day. Judge Mosman, who is hearing the case, made it clear at the first hearing in late December that he saw the harm that a delay in this law would cause, therefore he wanted to keep the timeline as short as possible.

So today we could see two outcomes. He could rule from the bench based on the close to 5 hours of testimony - or he could make a ruling in about a week to two weeks.

We should know in just a few hours. Stay tuned.

Labels: domestic partnership, federal court, HB 2007, lawsuit, oregon

Early estimations say that there could be upwards of 1500 people filling Terry Shrunk Plaza at 5:30 tonight - all rallying for equality. As most of you know Friday is the federal court hearing on Oregon's Domestic Partnership law. We probably won't know the fate of the law on Friday as the judge is expected to take some time to make his ruling. Possibly a few weeks.

Not caught up on everything that has happened? Here is some of our recent coverage:
DELAYED: Oregon Domestic Partnership Law
Squashed: The Hope and Dreams of Oregon Families
Oregon Domestic Partnership Law Delay: What's Next?
Photo Journal: Portland's Candlelight Vigil
Judge Mosman Grants BRO's Motion to Intervene in Lemons v Bradbury


Stand Up and Be Counted TONIGHT. For more info on TONIGHT'S rally - click here.

Also - check out Jeana Frazini's (Exec. Dir. of Basic Rights Oregon) guest piece on Blue Oregon.

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, federal court, lawsuit, oregon

Well known Portland Attorney Beth Allen who has played large roles in the Li v. Oregon and Martinez v. Oregon cases has penned a no hold barred op-ed in the Oregonian today blasting anti-gay forces who have infiltrated Oregon. These forces are masquerading themselves as saints attempting to alter the Oregon initiative process - when in reality it has little to do with the process itself, but the end result. The end result being to advance their extremist, out-of-state, anti-gay agenda here in Oregon.

Allen asks the question, "At what cost do we unravel our process?".

And here is her op-ed:

The Legislature last year passed a bill that would finally grant Oregon's gay couples state rights and responsibilities similar to those of married couples. The governor signed the bill in May, to go into effect on Jan. 1.

Some Oregonians, angered by the Legislature's vote, attempted to refer the issue to the ballot. They gathered petition signatures, but their usual constituency had apparently grown tired of the divisive issue, and the ballot measure's proponents turned in for review less than 62,000 signatures. They needed 55,179 valid signatures.

The process used to determine the validity of the signatures was the same process that has been used for years. The secretary of state's office employs a statistically appropriate sampling method to determine whether enough signatures are likely to meet the threshold number of valid signatures. This allows the state to avoid the burden of verifying every single signature, which would be prohibitively costly.

While reviewing the signatures submitted for the referral, people for and against the ballot measure peered over the shoulders of the signature verifiers, often offering comment. But unless there was a good reason to doubt the veracity of any signature, it was counted. By Oct. 8, the ballot measure proponents knew that the number of signatures they submitted was insufficient.

All of this should have come as no surprise. Oregonians (and, yes, too often out-of-staters) have been engaging in this process for decades. It's well-known that some signatures gathered in the petition process on Oregon's streets will be invalid, so it's advisable for advocates to submit significantly more than the threshold amount to ensure success. In this case, they didn't. And most people in Oregon breathed a sigh of relief -- one less discriminatory ballot measure to divide the state.

The days, weeks and months ticked by. And then, just as the law was about to go into effect, enter Joseph Infranco, an out-of-state lawyer with something called the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative anti-gay group. He ran to federal court to cry foul on the state. And now, we all must wait for the law to go into effect while he attempts to argue why our state should review signatures the way he wants them reviewed.

To Joseph Infranco, I say this: This is not a football game, as portrayed in the analogy of your commentary in The Oregonian ("Hijacking Oregon's democratic process," Jan. 16), and no one was cheated of the opportunity to participate in democracy.

What you clearly don't understand is the damage that you are doing to the democratic process. If you and your anti-gay allies are successful, the victory will be Pyrrhic. It will become more difficult and much more expensive to get any measure on Oregon's ballot. If unsuccessful (my expectation), you will have wasted Oregonians' tax dollars, which are being used to defend our state's process, and hurt real Oregon families who could have benefited from the law while it was held up in court.

Oregonians will rue the day you rode into town. When you're done, you'll ride away, probably to muck about in some other state's political processes, looking for ways to oppress the civil rights of people you find distasteful.

Oregonians, on the other hand, will be left to wonder: Are we so afraid of gay people committing to one another that we're willing to allow outsiders to unravel our initiative process and continue to divide our state?

Only time will tell.

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon, referendum

We just received word that counsel representing Basic Rights Oregon has been granted their motion to intervene in Lemons v. Bradbury. The motion was filed Wednesday and although the judge had two weeks to make a decision, it only took him one day to approve it.

Folks this is some fantastic news. This will give Basic Rights Oregon the proper standing in the case, enabling them to ensure that the voices of hundreds of families and committed couples are heard before the court.

The interveners in the case include:

Basic Rights Oregon

Jeana Frazzini, plaintiff in Parman v. State of Oregon et al, in addition to being the new Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon

Erin Sexton Taylor, a woman who is in a committed partnership and is expecting her first child in May

Sally Sparks, also in a committed long-term relationship and is expecting second child in February

More to come.

RELATED POSTS:
BREAKING: Basic Rights Oregon Files Motion to Intervene

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, lemons v bradbury, oregon, portland

While today would have marked the day that committed same-sex couples in Oregon could enter into Domestic Partnerships, we instead gathered with nearly 500 others to join side-by-side in candlelight in dedication to upholding the law. While no one can forget the nearly 35 year struggle for a statewide anti-discrimination law, we also cannot forget that last Friday the 28th, a federal judge put Oregon's Domestic Partnership law on hold for at least a month - pending another hearing on February 1.

I wanted to share some photos of this evening's ceremony which was on of seven across the state. Other cities south of Portland brought about 300 people. Photos below the recent story links.

Here are some photo highlights. Sorry about the lack of quality on some of them.

RELATED POSTS (old to new):

Squashed: The Hope and Dreams of Oregon Families

Judge Who Made Yesterday's Anti-Gay Ruling Has Shady Past?

Oregon Domestic Partnership Law Delay: What's Next?

One Oregon, One Hope: A Community in Mourning

BREAKING: Basic Rights Oregon Files Motion to Intervene



Nearly 500 people attended the vigil at the Q Center in Portland. Cops closed the street out front as it was so full inside, they began to fill the streets.


Basic Rights Oregon's former Executive Director Roey Thorpe.

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon, portland

This JUST in. Basic Rights Oregon, in cooperation with their counsel, has filed a motion to intervene in Lemons v. Bradbury. If granted by Judge Mosman, this would give Basic Rights Oregon standing in the case, allow BRO to work with the state to defend the law and ensure that the interests of Oregon families are represented fairly before the court.

Details are still coming in, but here is what we know so far aside from the above.

The interveners in the case would include:

Basic Rights Oregon

Jeana Frazzini, plaintiff in Parman v. State of Oregon et al, in addition to being the new Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon

Erin Sexton Taylor, a woman who is in a committed partnership and is expecting her first child in May

Sally Sparks, also in a committed long-term relationship and is expecting second child in February

Judge Mosman has two weeks to make the decision as to whether or not he will allow this motion. Opponents will have a chance to way in on the motion to intervene.

More details to come as well as an interview with one of the expecting mothers.

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon

Tonight all across Oregon there will be candlelight vigils held - this comes on the heels of a federal judge halting Oregon's Domestic Partnership law, that would have gone into effect today, until at least February 1st. On February 1 there will be a hearing on the matter and the judge will then decide whether of not our law will go into effect. For more on the background of the story we direct you to an earlier post.

Those of us from Gay Rights Watch will be at the Portland vigil and we strongly encourage you to join us in masses. This is all part of the massive response from Basic Rights Oregon. Our community, be it straight or gay, must join together and stand up against injustice to our fellow Oregonians.

Portland
The Q Center (69 SE Taylor)
5:30 - 7:00 pm

Eugene
Grace Chapel (1166 Oak Street)
5:30 - 7:00 pm

Corvallis
Meet at the First United Methodist Church Community Center (11th and Jackson) at 5:30, then walk to the Benton County Courthouse (120 NW Fourth).
Adjourn at 6:30 to Iovino's Restaurant.
This event was organized jointly between Corvallis-Albany PFLAG and Corvallis BRAT.

Bend
Candlelight Vigil and Celebration of Equality
Meet at 5:30 at the corner of Wall and Greenwood.
Afterwards, join us for a celebration of all relationships at The Summit at 125 Oregon St.
This event was organized jointly between BRO and the Human Dignity Coalition

Ashland
Ashland First Congregational United Church of Christ
717 Siskiyou Boulevard
5:30 - 7:00 pm

Salem
Salem City Hall (555 Liberty St. SE)
Meet at the north entrance to city hall (the end towards the creek). Supporters will gather under the overhang near the fountain.

Pendleton
Courthouse clock tower (corner of SE 4th and Court Ave.) 5:30pm
Candles will be provided. Dress warmly!

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon, portland

Following Friday's ruling from a Multnomah County Federal Court delaying Oregon's Domestic Partnership law from going into effect on January 1st (story here), there are a myriad of emotions swirling around each and every one of our heads.

The sorrow, the anger, the crushing of a thousand dreams, the basic aspiration that one day very soon each and every Oregon family would be granted their basic human right to take care of one another in times of crisis.

Right now we feel defeated. Right now we feel trampled on. For far too long we have fought tooth and nail to just get to this day. And now with the banging of a gavel, we again are forced to wait in a state of what seems like perpetual limbo. Many of us want to take to the streets demanding that our voices be heard and be heard loud... but that won't get our families anywhere. Right now we must remain focused on those actions that can truly make a positive difference. Actions that will show the strength and unity of our community and allies.

The magnitude of what we as Oregonians have accomplished to get to this day cannot and will not go unnoticed. For many of us it is far too easy to become discouraged. My fellow Oregonians, we have been here before and what did we do? We dusted ourselves off and got right back up.

As a voice in this community I urge all of us to give everything we've got to give. We are so close to putting an end to inequality for gay and lesbian couples. If we give up right now - we could lose it all.

I call upon all of you. Gay, straight, fellow Oregonians and fellow non-Oregonians. We can create lasting change in Oregon by taking the opportunity to close the book on this chapter of history.

Please join my partner and me in making a donation to the one organization in Oregon that has the power, the means and knowhow to seal the deal on equality. Click here to make a donation to Basic Rights Oregon. They have set up a legal defense fund specifically for this case and your gift is 100% tax- deductible.

Again, whether you are straight or gay has no bearing. We're all in this together, one Oregon, one hope and one shared vision of basic equality. Please make a contribution to the Basic Rights Oregon legal fund now. Be it $25 or $500, each and every dollar helps. Or, make a $60 contribution - the exact amount that it would have (and will someday soon!) cost to register for a Domestic Partnership.

And for those of us craving an opportunity to demonstrate our strength as a community, meet up at Q Center (69 SE Taylor at Water Avenue) for a candlelight vigil organized by BRO on Wed., January 2nd from 5:30 to 7pm. Community leaders, our families, neighbors and allies will be there to stand with us, and together we will make sure the public understands the harm this delay will cause to committed couples and our families.

I leave you now with the words of a dear friend. Her beautiful words sum up what we're feeling and offers her very personal account of her journey to equality.

Did you hear that sound?

That's the sound of me being kicked in the stomach again. Yeah, it hurts. It's the same pain I felt after Measure 36, when the state ruled my marriage was invalid.

There it is again. That sound.
When we received the refund check from the county for our marriage license.

That sound? I hear it every day. Every week. All the time. It's the sound of inequalities of gay and lesbian couples in Oregon who are denied the benefits of marriage that our friends, family and other members of the Oregon community enjoy.

Enjoy? They're actually benefits that really matter mainly in times of life or death. The stories I've heard..of the partner of a war veteran denied being handed the flag at his partner's funeral. Of an emergency room scenario where a partner is denied access to be at the bedside of their loved one. Of a partner whose name was crossed through on their child's birth certificate because she was not "wed" to the birth mother. The list goes on and on of the stories I've heard. They're horrible, and tragic, and they hurt.

And today? There's the sound again.

Just days before AdRi and I planned on going to the county courthouse and registering as domestic partners, a judge has delayed the laws. Thanks to the outside influence of an Arizona based organization fighting the laws here in Oregon, AdRi and I will just cool our heels. Again. And wait. Despite that we've been together over ten years. Despite that we celebrated our marriage with friends and family 3 years ago. Despite.....the list could go on forever, really.

Sigh. Yes, we'll wait. We'll wait to stand in line to get a partial list of benefits that the majority of people in this country benefit from, when this makes it through the courts.

Make the difference. Unite with your family, friends and neighbors and make a contribution to the BRO legal fund to ensure that Oregon's Domestic Partnership law rightly goes into law. Again, it is 100% tax-deductable so make your donation quick before the end of the year if you'd like to get it on your 2007 taxes.

Candlelight Vigil Wednesday in Portland
Join with us and a community that supports you, at a candlelight vigil, Wednesday, January 2nd, at Q Center with Basic Rights Oregon. 5:30-7pm. 69 SE Taylor (at Water Avenue)

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon

What's Next?
U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman will hear arguments Feb. 1 about whether the state correctly counted petition signatures gathered by opponents of domestic partnerships. If he rules for the state, the law takes effect immediately, and gay couples can register. If he rules against the state, opponents want the judge to order a statewide vote on domestic partnerships. Either way, his decision can be appealed and probably will be.

Also, I just came across some info from Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams:

We can help.

Oregon's domestic partnership law is a matter of basic fairness to all Portlanders and Oregonians.

I will ask the Portland City Council to authorize the Office of the City Attorney to provide legal help as needed to fight off this out-of-state effort to block implementation of Oregon's domestic partnership law.

In case you have missed the coverage of Oregon's Domestic Partnership law getting a temporary restraining order halting it for at least a month - here is the wrap up of some blog coverage and traditional news coverage.

From us (oldest to most recent):

DELAYED: Oregon Domestic Partnership Law

Squashed: The Hope and Dreams of Oregon Families

Judge Who Made Yesterday's Anti-Gay Ruling Has Shady Past?

Associated Press:

Oregon Domestic Partnership Law Halted

LeLo in NoPo:

Did you hear that sound?

Willamette Week:

More Details On The Temporary Injunction to Domestic Partnership

Just Out:

Making Sense of the Injunction

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon, wrap up

In an April 2003 story in the Oregonian entitled, "Smith's Pick Stirs Gay-Rights Controversy", it talks about the now District Court Judge Michael Mosman as possibly having an anti-gay side.

From the Oregonian:
What once seemed like a slam-dunk nomination for the federal judiciary in Oregon could turn into a test of political wills for Oregon's two senators, Republican Gordon Smith and Democrat Ron Wyden.

Michael Mosman, the U.S. attorney in Portland, is Smith's choice for a vacant district judgeship and is still regarded as a favorite of the Bush White House. But recent revelations of Mosman's views on gay rights, first expressed in 1986, have delayed his selection and what otherwise would likely be easy Senate confirmation.

Now, gay-rights groups are demanding explanations from Mosman, putting Smith's carefully crafted reputation as a friend to the homosexual community on the line. Wyden, meanwhile, could be the only defense against a filibuster by the Senate's increasingly restive Democratic minority if he chooses to support Mosman's nomination.

The senators have cooperated in filling the vacancy created when U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones took senior status in 2000. But they could face rough going if national gay-rights groups actively oppose Mosman's nomination.

"If the gay-rights community makes this nomination a litmus test, then quite frankly, they're in the middle of it and they're going to have to take sides," said Jim Moore, an independent political analyst in Portland.

It's unclear whether that will happen. But gay-rights activists say they're still waiting for answers from Mosman.

"What I want him to show is that he has come to understand that relationships need to be judged on their quality, not whether they are gay or straight," said Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, an advocacy group in Portland.

Mosman, 46, emerged as the top candidate in January after Ray Baum, a lawyer for Smith's family business, withdrew. But controversy erupted in March, when Basic Rights disclosed Mosman's role in a pivotal 1986 case, Bowers V. Hardwick (read about the case on Wikipedia here).

The group uncovered and presented to Smith two "bench memos" that Mosman had written as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Mosman urged Powell to uphold Georgia's anti-sodomy law against a claim that police invaded a man's privacy by arresting him in his home.

Read the entire story here.

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, federal court, gay rights, oregon

We've got more information on the ruling out of the Multnomah County Federal Court surrounding Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law. It's sort of a wrap up on the events of the day. Don't let the title of this post fool you, the fight is far from over. Read on for the whole story - but first! This just in! My mother emailed me as she received the email in California from Basic Rights Oregon about the ruling. This is what she had to say (and yes, this is all):

The delay of the partnership law really makes me ill - that some evil idiot sicko could get this law stopped... So not right.

Thoughts,
Mom

How can you not love my mother?!

Additional information from Just Out's Julie Sabatier who was in the courtroom today:

Judge Mosman presided over the preliminary injunction hearing today on the 16thfloor of the Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland. He made it clear at the outset that he thought the case depended heavily on whether or not the plaintiffs could demonstrate that the signing of a petition utilizes the same fundamental right as the signing of a ballot. Mosman pointed out that he had not seen any case law in the briefing materials that clearly argued this point. "I'd be tentatively inclined not to find a fundamental right where none has been found before," he said. Then, the lawyers for the plaintiffs pulled out some case law that hadn't been in the original brief. It was a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court in Idaho that they argued basically defined the signing of a referendum petition as a fundamental right. There was a brief recess to consider this new bit of information.

When the session resumed, the judge heard arguments for and against the fundamental rights issue and eventually decided that the case did, in fact, involve a fundamental right. Therefore, the plaintiffs had shown that they had a strong possibility of prevailing on the merits of their case. Judge Mosman also ruled that any denial of a fundamental right is equal to irreparable harm. Thus, he said, he was obligated to put a temporary injunction in place until Feb. 1, when he will hold a hearing on a permanent injunction, which will essentially be a hearing on the merits of the case.

And finally, we normally wouldn't post an entire email from someone, but in this case it is different. The following comes from Jeana Frazzini, Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon:

I couldn't have been more shocked and saddened when, sitting in the courtroom today, I heard Judge Mosman announce that he was temporarily delaying the implementation of Oregon's domestic partnership law.

This decision is nothing short of an outrage. As Basic Rights Oregon argued in our amicus brief to the court, this delay tactic results in very real harm to countless Oregonians and their families, and is absolutely unnecessary.

The suit, brought by right-wing, out of state interest groups The Alliance Defense Fund and Restore America is an eleventh hour effort to keep gay and lesbian Oregonians from critical and necessary rights, and it is shameful.

The suit was brought against the State of Oregon and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who oversees Oregon's elections. Since BRO was not named as a party to this lawsuit, it was the State's attorney who argued the case in court. Nevertheless, we hired the top election attorney in the state to craft our "friend of the court" brief. In this brief, we explained in both legal and personal terms why it was absolutely critical that this law go into effect on January 1st.

But Judge Mosman grossly underestimated the harm that will be done to Oregon families. The law will not go into effect, at least until the next hearing which is scheduled for February 1st.

Moving forward, Basic Rights Oregon is conferring with our attorney about how we can become even more aggressively involved in the case. And we need YOU - our supporters - involved now more than ever.

But we must take action to ensure our domestic partnership law is not lost. Join BRO vigils in Ashland, Portland, Bend, Corvallis and Eugene on the evening of January 2nd - the day we should have been celebrating the beginning of domestic partnerships. Details are below.
In solidarity,

Jeana Frazzini
Executive Director, Basic Rights Oregon

TWO THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO POST RULING:

1.) Give and give big to Basic Rights Oregon who will not rest until this fight is over and we are victorious. Click here to donate to BRO now.

3.) NEVER forget that after 34 years and 17 consecutive legislative sessions of trying, Oregon passed and signed into law a comprehensive Anti-Discrimination law that will still go into effect on January 1, 2008.


- Bryan Boyd

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon

Details are just filtering in but what we do know is that anti-gay forces have succeeded in delaying Oregon's Domestic Partnership law. The law, slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, is now delayed until February 1st, 2008 - then the anti-gay groups will go for a permanent stay via the court.

More to come shortly.

Labels: domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon

UPDATE: 3:20pm - Calls made to various sources for a status update. No status to report as of yet. More to come.

Due to the State's motion to quash the subpoenas to the county clerks, the Court rescheduled the TRO/PI hearing for 2PM Friday afternoon. The Judge will conduct a telephone hearing at 10AM on the State's motion to quash the subpoenas.

We were going to be there live blogging at 10am this morning and now that it is postponed we cannot make the 2pm.

We'll provide an update as soon as we hear what happens.

Labels: domestic partnership, federal court, lawsuit, oregon

We'll be blogging live from the first oral arguments this Friday starting at 10am. The case, Lemons v. Bill Bradbury (Oregon Secretary of State) and a bunch of other random people that the sue happy "Alliance Defense Fund" and "Restore America" are challenging after their inability to get their anti-gay referendum on the ballot. They are seeking an injunction/restraining order to stop Domestic Partnerships from going into law on January 1st. They've had since October to file this suit and they waited until now.

Basic Rights Oregon has submitted a friend of the court brief and have retained the counsel of Margaret Olney - not to mention the fact that they have an amazing legal team from the best firms across the state who work pro bono. All great people.

In any case, we'll be there. Hopefully they will have wireless and allow laptops - otherwise we'll be blogging via iPhones!

Labels: domestic partnership, federal court, lawsuit, live blogging, oregon

This just in from the opposition.

Oral arguments have been set for Friday, December 28th at 10AM by the Multnomah County Federal Court in which a motion was filed yesterday by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that could prevent HB 2007 creating 'domestic partnerships' becoming law in Oregon January 1.

According to the filing, "The instant action is one for injunctive and other relief wherein the constitutionality of Oregon's statutory and administrative scheme relating to petitions and/or referendums to place a statewide advisory question upon the ballot, is in issue. Plaintiffs are signers of Referendum 303 (my hilites) and claim that, inter alia, the statutory and administrative scheme utilized by the Defendants unconstitutionally disenfranchised them."

Oh cry me a river. FYI Restore America is asking that you pray for them. Get to it kids!

One of Basic Rights Oregon's attorney's, Mark Johnson, helped explain what it all means. (Thanks Just Out)

According to Johnson, "A temporary restraining order is an order a judge issues that freezes everything in place until the court can make a ruling. A preliminary injunction in this context would be a ruling that would stop the law from going into effect while the case is pending." He says these are common tactics in a case like this, where someone is trying to prevent something from happening.

The temporary restraining order is usually very temporary, and could just be a way for the judge to put things on hold while he decides whether or not to issue the permanent injunction, which could put the law on hold until the case is decided. Johnson explained that in order to get the preliminary injunction, the ADF would need to show that the plaintiffs would be "irreparably harmed" by the law going into effect and they have to show that they have a likelihood of winning the case.

Basic Rights Oregon has previously made a statement recently regarding the lawsuit:
Hummel said the lawsuit's chance's of success are slim to none. "On January 1st, same sex couples in committed, caring relationships will have the legal recognition they need to take care of each other," he said. "Nothing is going to prevent this law from going into effect."

Then came word from the Secretary of State's office:

"What it comes down to is there are statutes that govern how signatures on initiative petitions are verified and those statues were applied in exactly the same way as every other initiative petition that's delivered to this office. The law is applied fairly and neutrally across the board," says Scott Moore, chief of communications for the Secretary of State. "To bend the rules to allow for an exception in this case would be granting special privileges to a select group."

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit

Multnomah County announces that they are as ready as it can be, taking all necessary steps to assist in the implementation of Oregon's Domestic Partnership on January 2nd. Because January 1st is a holiday, Declaration of Domestic Partnerships won't be given out until the 2nd.

Below are some very important instructions in case you and your partner are planning on getting registered.

Today we spoke with the fabulous Karol Collymore, Communications and Policy Manager for Commissioner Jeff Cogen.

She said, "Here in Jeff's office, we all feel very close to the GLBT movement. We knew when HB 2007 passed we'd do whatever we could to help expedite the process for couples seeking to further protect their relationships. We found out that couples filing for domestic partnerships were going to have to notarize their forms - something not needed for marriage certificates, by the way - and that adds to the stress of the process. We made a group decision to all take the notary class to help the GLBT community and ensure for those folks getting domestic partnership forms, they would not have to leave the building and return again, just to file. We all take this personally and are proud to continue to work for equality for all Oregonians."

Go Jeff Cogen's office!


From Multnomah County:

When the Oregon Family Fairness Act takes effect January 2, same-sex couples throughout Oregon will be eligible to register under the new domestic partnership system created by the law. Multnomah County has been making preparations to ensure smooth and efficient business operations after the new law is implemented.

The county’s Assessment and Taxation division has been in charge of planning and will process domestic partnerships in the same way as marriage licenses. Plans include creating orderly spaces for higher than average numbers of people in the building’s lobby if needed, focusing staff resources in customer service areas and ensuring that all other county business will continue uninterrupted.

“We're going to be ready to start certifying domestic partnerships the moment our doors open on January 2,” said Carol Ford, director the county management, which oversees marriage licenses and domestic partnerships. “Multnomah County has undertaken a thorough planning process and we expect everything to run very smoothly.”

The new law allows same-sex couples, when one of whom is a resident of Oregon and both are over 18 years of age, to certify their partnerships in any county within the state and receive a range of civil and legal benefits previously unavailable to them.

The form, Declaration of Domestic Partnership, will be available at Multnomah County offices beginning on January 2 and is expected to be available at the Oregon Department of Human Services Website on January 1. Those who choose to print the form from the web must use legal-sized paper (8 ½” x 14”) or Multnomah County will be required to reject the form.

Unlike marriage licenses, the Declaration of Domestic Partnership requires no solemnization from a religious or legal official. Instead, forms require signature verifications and seal of a Notary Public. Volunteer notaries will be on site at the Multnomah County offices for the first several business days after the new law takes effect. Both parties are required to present identification for the notarization.

Like marriage licenses, the fee is $60 to register a domestic partnership. Fees are payable in cash or certified funds only; no personal checks or credit/debit cards accepted. An ATM is available at the Multnomah Building (501 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) and business hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

And Basic Rights Oregon is also working frantically to ensure all the bases are covered and that there will be no snags in the process as presumably hundreds line up across the state. They are also planning celebration parties around the state (more info here).

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, multnomah county, oregon, portland

In response to the lawsuit filed yesterday, Basic Rights Oregon responds - as does the Secretary of State.

Basic Rights Oregon Executive Director John Hummel said that a lawsuit filed by anti-gay activists in a gambit to revive a failed referendum on Oregon's new domestic partnership law is completely without merit.

"This lawsuit demonstrates our opponents' commitment to dismantling Oregon's anti-discrimination laws," Hummel said in a statement today. "We have to be vigilant, and prepared to meet them at every turn. We are confident that this case will be dismissed."

The complaint filed in Federal Court by out of state attorneys alleges that Oregon's Secretary of State and a dozen county clerks erred by not creating special procedures to reinstate the signatures of people who said they had signed the petition, but whose signatures were found to be invalid using well established criteria.

Basic Rights Oregon has monitored the signature verification process on many occasions over the years. The process we observed on these petitions was consistent with what we have seen year after year, Hummel said. "The Secretary of State's job is to ensure the uniform and efficient administration of elections, and we're confident that all of the proper rules and regulations were followed as usual.

In early October, Oregon's Secretary of State certified the results of the referendum effort and found that that the petitions fell short of the number of required signatures to force a referendum on the domestic partnership law. The law takes effect on January 1, 2008.

Hummel said the lawsuit’s chance's of success are slim to none. “On January 1st, same sex couples in committed, caring relationships will have the legal recognition they need to take care of each other," he said. "Nothing is going to prevent this law from going into effect."

Then comes word from the Secretary of State's office. Let me just raise a glass to Scott Moore for the following statement (mainly the last sentence).

"What it comes down to is there are statutes that govern how signatures on initiative petitions are verified and those statues were applied in exactly the same way as every other initiative petition that's delivered to this office. The law is applied fairly and neutrally across the board," says Scott Moore, chief of communications for the Secretary of State. "To bend the rules to allow for an exception in this case would be granting special privileges to a select group."

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, lawsuit, oregon, referendum

Today, anti-gay fanatics filed a lawsuit in federal court against the invalidation of petition #303, an attempt to overturn Oregon's Domestic Partnership law that goes into effect in less than a month on January 1, 2008. Because honestly why not? You already failed twice at stripping the rights of Oregon families - what's one more?

The lawsuit by the notorious extremist group "Alliance Defense Fund" was filed against the Oregon Secretary of State, as well as "several Oregon county clerks".

First - why was it filed in federal court? Last time we checked none of the participating attorney's for the gay hating bigots were licensed to practice law in this state, but it looks like they found some jack ass attorney's to fill those shoes.

Lets all take a step back at the big picture here. The group (Restore America) who sent the email announcing the details of this lawsuit have now moved to Tennessee. Oh what? Thanks for the reminder. They also have a major elections violation filed against them. They've taken part in a quite fraudulent scheme of raising funds. You can read more about that here.

The following is from "Restore America" announcing the lawsuit. It's basically a bunch of bullshit but we're trying to be "fair and balanced" like their favorite news channel:

ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Oregonians whose signatures were invalidated by clerks' offices in 12 different counties. Many of the citizens sought, in person, to have their signatures revalidated since no legitimate reason existed to reject their signatures, but the clerks refused.

You can download a copy of the complaint here. So much fun!

No response yet from Basic Rights Oregon - I assume that will come within the next couple days depending on how serious they take this 'final anti-gay attempt of 2007'.

Deuces queer haters.

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, lawsuit, oregon

So the truth is in and voter fraud has occurred by Oregon's anti-gay extremists. See part one of this story for the reasons.

Here are the groups and individuals who gave money ($100 or more) to assist and force a public vote on Oregon's Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws. Believe it or not this is all that is shown on the contribution and expenditure reports. we're leaving out those personally involved in the Chief Petitioners PAC's.

Anti-Discrimination Referendum (#304):

World Harvest Church: $779.00
120 SE 172nd Ave
Portland, Oregon 97233

Concerned Oregonians (aka Restore America): $4922.01

Vicki Lynn Davis: $300
4240 SW Parkview Ave.
Portland, OR 97233

Kevin Mannix: $400
About Kevin Mannix - Republican, twice failed candidate for Oregon Attorney General and twice failed candidate for governor. Currently Mannix spends a large amount of his time in corrupt politics - mainly shady ballot initiatives, he is also an attorney in Salem.

Also for #304 there were "Miscellaneous cash contributions of $100 or less: $1211.00", meaning individual donors.


Domestic Partnership Referendum (#303):

Concerned Oregonians (aka Restore America): $4922.02

Kevin Mannix: $352.92


I know this is a bit shocking - but they had nearly no contributions. To me this again goes to show that Oregonians simply aren't that into the politics of hate and fear.

See the full reports here (#303, #304).

Labels: anti gay, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon

First let me just say, we've got some elections fraud on our hands. With the tens of thousands of dollars that David Crowe at 'Restore America' claimed to have received in donations that were meant for their political action committee (PAC) that in fact never was legally a PAC - other than the fact that he started a corporation called "Concerned Oregonians PAC".

A quickie in Oregon politics: you can call yourself a PAC all day - but at the end of the day if you haven't actually legally formed a true PAC - you aren't a PAC. Hence the elections violation complaint filed by Ellen Lowe regarding the anti-gay's fraudulent fundraising tactics.

Quick refresher. David's Crowe's defunct group "Concerned Oregonians PAC" was in fact a corporation, not a political action committee although they claimed that any individual could donate up to $50 and married couples could donate up to $100 that would be tax-deductible via Oregon's political tax credit.

The issue? THEY LIED. They defrauded Oregonians -- and David Crowe has since moved to Tennessee in the past couples of weeks - at least that is what he tells the New York Times.

What deeply rooted Christian values!

In our next post today we're going to breakdown who gave money and just as important - who didn't give money to the Chief Petitioner's PAC's for referendum #303 and #304 - one an attempt to overturn Oregon's Domestic Partnership law and the other an attempt to overturn Oregon's anti-discrimination law.

Look for that later today.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon, SB 2

This is not a test and not a joke. Could it possibly be true that David Crowe, head of Restore America - the extremist anti-gay group who was attempting to put Oregon's new Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws on the Novemeber 2008 ballot - has moved to Tennessee?

That's what we just heard from always reliable blogger The One True B!X. A post on his blog 'Furious Nads' from Oct. 20 says:

Anyone have any idea why David Crowe of the Oregon-based Restore America's Bigotry is described by the press as being from Tennessee?

And just two days ago on Oct. 22 he has a new post stating something very surprising:

Remember when I wondered why the press was referring to David Crowe of Restore America's Bigotry as being of Tennessee? I asked The New York Times, and here's why: "They just moved from Oregon to Tennessee."

Wow. They told the NY Times that they have moved to Tennessee. Could it be possible that they've realized that Oregon isn't a place where their sort of fringe extremism would be tolerated so they have to go to a place like Tennessee?

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum, restore america

David Crowe of the defunked and illegal 'political action committee' called Concerned Oregonians is crying fowl weeks after his failed referendum attempt.

From OregonLive today:

Opponents of the domestic partnership bill that passed the Legislature are still trying to get the law referred to the ballot, even though the secretary of state's office ruled earlier this month that they fell 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 required by law.

The Medford Mail Tribune reports that opponents of the law - which allows same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships that include many of the legal protections given to married couples - are pressuring the Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett to count several signatures she had earlier invalidated.

Because the secretary of state validates petitions by using just a sample of the signatures, opponents figure they can make up their deficit by persuading the clerk to allow just six of the invalidated signatures to be counted. The group seeking the referendum, Concerned Oregonians, has rounded up eight people who say they signed the petition but had their signatures unfairly invalidated.

At this point, Beckett gives no indication she will change her mind. But if nothing else, it's a sign of how every angle of Oregon's initiative and referendum process is coming under intense scrutiny and pressure.

Give up already. When gay and lesbian Oregonians lost Constitutional Amendment 36 in 2004, sure we cried and were deeply upset - upset for very good reasons. Oregon's Constitution was scarred that fateful day. It was no longer the Constitution of the people, it was the Constitution for some.

Now, after your blatant failure to put the 26th and 27th (I think) anti-gay measure on the ballot (more than any other state in the nation) you are crying fowl. Take your defeat as just that. Oregonians simply aren't into your politics of bigotry and fear. That was so 2004.

You claim that Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law "violates the intent of Oregon voters who in 2004 adopted a constitutional ban on gay marriage." So why go through all these months of collecting tens of thousands of signatures?

If it was violating Measure 36 then you would file a lawsuit. If in fact it did violate Measure 36, you would win. I will give you some credit here though. Deep down you know that Domestic Partnerships in no way violate Measure 36--nor the "spirit of Measure 36". Hence why you and your fellow self-righteous bigots have failed to do so.

You also fail to notice that the proponents of Measure 36 have stepped back and are not participating in the referendum attempt. They even know that Domestic Partnerships are a far cry from marriage.

"The spirit of Measure 36"... what exactly is that? The way I see it the spirit of Measure 36 is damn evil by not only permanently inscribing blatant discrimination in Oregon's most sacred document, by locking Oregon families out of vital rights, protections and responsibilities.

I think families are the backbone of society, whereas you could not be further away from this belief. Selectively shutting out couples, especially with children from protecting one another is just plain wrong. As one of your cohorts said in a voter guide statement: "Speaking of families, raising a successful and loving family in the '90's can be challenging".

Damn right--10 years later it's even harder.

Now you are also falsely claiming that:

"...the legislature's results fail to provide a sufficient religious exemption to protect churches and religious organizations from being forced to hire homosexual individuals, and further it leaves to "a court to decide what is or is not closely connected with the primary purposes of the church."

The pair of plans also would require school districts to teach homosexual, bisexuality and transgenderism in their classrooms, and the domestic partnership proposal itself, would create discrimination."

Must I again remind you that the proponents of Measure 36, the Oregon Family Council decided not to involve themselves in the referendum attempt. In fact they called the religious expemtion "iron clad."

Let it go. Oregonians just aren't that into you.

Labels: 2008 elections, anti gay, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, HB 2007, house bill 2007, oregon, referendum, SB 2, senate bill 2

Now that Oregon's Domestic Partnership law will be going into effect on January 1st, Basic Rights Oregon is holding a "Know Your Rights" event tonight in Portland - with more to follow in other cities around the state.

From BRO:

Come celebrate, learn about your basic rights under the new laws, and help plan the upcoming effort to defend them.

Wednesday, October 17th, 6:30pm. Metropolitan Community Church of Portland (2400 NE Broadway). To RSVP, contact Aubrey@basicrights.org

The upcoming cities are:

Eugene:
Thursday, October 18th, 7:00pm. Whitaker Community School (21 North Grand). To RSVP, contact Becky@basicrights.org

Corvallis:
Thursday, October 25th, 6:30pm. Westminster House (101 NW 23rd St). To RSVP, contact Maceo@basicrights.org

Bend:
Monday, October 22nd, 6:30pm. Location TBA. For more info, contact Tammy@basicrights.org

Salem:
November 7th, 6:30pm. Willamette University Law School, Room 218. To RSVP, contact Maceo@basicrights.org

Pendleton:
Date TBA. For more info, contact Thomas@basicrights.org

Southern Oregon:
Date TBA. For more info, contact Thomas@basicrights.org

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon

The anti-gay referendum attempt on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law has FAILED. Supporters of discrimination could only muster up 53,875 valid signatures and they needed at least 55,179 to force the vote in November 2008.

This means that both Oregon's Domestic Partnership law (referendum failed earlier this week) and Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law will go into effect as planned on January 1, 2008.

Good job my fellow Oregonians. More to come as this story unfolds.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum

Today at 5pm was the deadline for Oregon's counties to complete their signature verification process. Tomorrow the Secretary of State will announce whether or not it has been certified.

Just a refresher on the situation.

This law, signed by Governor Kulongoski on May 9th of this year (video of signing), will ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodation.

A few fringe anti-gay groups organized together (and I use organized very lightly) in an attempt to put a referendum on the November 2008 ballot. They needed to collect 55,179 valid signatures to accomplish this. When they turned in their signatures with just about 30 minutes left to spare on their 3 month window, they claimed they had 63,000.

The Secretary of State's office then went through the first round of verification. In that round they look for any major irregularities or incorrect sheets and discard them. Following that process there were 59,761 signatures. From there samples went out to Oregon counties for further verification.

Now here we are. Just hours until we find out if anti-gay groups have succeeded in forcing a public vote on whether or not a person should be fired from their job SIMPLY for being gay - or even being denied housing JUST because they are gay or lesbian.

Our prediction at here at GRW is that they will fail based on the other referendum attempt on the Domestic Partnership law also passed n May 9th. After the first round of verification it had 60,531 that then went to the counties for further scrutiny. That one ended up failing by 116 signatures earlier this week.

We'll be watching this story closely tomorrow and will announce the outcome as soon as we hear.

Labels: 2008 elections, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum

This just in! Anti-gay groups attempting to put Oregon's Domestic Partnership law on the Nov. 2008 ballot just found out that they failed to meet the required 55,179 signatures necessary.

When they turned in their supposed "63,000" signatures on Oregon's Domestic Partnership law they came proud and confident. On initial count it turned out they actually only had 60,531. Petitions then went to counties where they were further scrutinized.

As Basic Rights Oregon said, "The fact that they were unable to meet even this extremely low signature threshold shows how out of step they are with Oregon values."

From the Secretary of State:

The result of the signature verification is referendum #303 did not contain enough valid signatures to qualify to the ballot. Referendum #303 was filed on HB 2007 passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature.

The proposed referendum required 55,179 valid signatures to gain ballot access. The referendum contains 55,063 valid signatures, or 90.97% of the 60,531 total unverified signatures submitted for verification.

The fight isn't quite over though in two big ways.

First, we are still awaiting word on their attempt for a referendum on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law. They also claimed 63,000 signatures on that one--though on initial count had a bit over 59,000. It looks to me like the attempt to force a public vote on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law will also fail--but you never know.

Second, the extremist fringe groups have pledged a repeal if they failed the first time. They could announce their intent any day now and they would have until July 3, 2008 to collect over 82,000 signatures.

So to be clear - as of January 1, 2008 same-sex couples will be able to register as Domestic Partners!

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon

Couples lined up this morning to take advantage of Washington state's new Domestic Partnership law which affords roughly twelve benefits to same-sex couples. These rights, benefits and responsibilities include things like: hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and the ability to inherit in the absence of a will.

Equal Rights Washington makes no claim that Washington's Domestic Partnerships are just a band-aid and no replacement for the hundreds of rights, responsibilities and protections that come with marriage.

Some 85 couples were registered after the first hour Monday, with another 50 pairs standing in a line that wrapped around the front of the secretary of state's office in downtown Olympia.

One small positive step forward for society.

Of course you then have the whackos...
Joseph Fuiten, a Bothell pastor who leads the conservative group Positive Christian Agenda, called the partnership registry "social experimentation."

"The state of Washington is signaling to our children that domestic partnerships are nearly as good as marriage," Fuiten said in a statement. "No research was done by the Legislature to prove that no harm will come to society as a result of this action."

To Mr. Fuiten I say this. First, the State of Washington is not in any way indicating that Domestic Partnerships are 'nearly as good as marriage'. As I said above these Domestic Partnerships offer ABOUT A DOZEN vital rights and responsibilities--far from the hundreds afforded to Mr. Fuiten and his wife.

If "social experimentation" as Mr. Fuiten calls it are things like being able to visit your partner in the hospital or the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations then I question his morals as a human being and as a pastor. These socially conservative extremists prove once and again that they do not even realize the worth of their marriage and that is a sad fact.

How about this...
What is Mr. Fuiten's child was in desperate need of an organ transplant, days away from death? Would he then have the same issue with committed gay couples being able to make choices about their partner's organs after death? Think about that Mr. Fuiten.

Labels: domestic partnership, gay rights, legislature, washington

An Open Letter To Former Oregon State Senator Marylin Shannon:

For those of you who are unaware of who Marylin Shannon is, she is one of the three ring-leaders who are trying to overturn Oregon's new Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws via a referendum.

My Dearest Schizo Bigot,

I sincerely apologize Mrs. Shannon, but after a long train of thought while taking a pee this morning, I've decided we could never be friends.

Here are my concerns.

1.) You think that gay people are immoral, perverted and destroying the world. That's a pretty big one for me.

2.) On one documented occasion while on the phone with a reporter, you claimed that you could not send a photo of yourself for the paper claiming, "[T]he homosexuals hacked into my computer and now it won't work." Mrs. Shannon, this concerns me.

3.) You were endorsed by Sen. Gordon Smith in your run for Oregon State Senate.

4.) You were on the "US Justice Department's Task Force on Families in Crisis"... yet you lack the basic judgement necessary to see that in Oregon, same-sex couples and their families are indeed in crisis, unable to establish a legal relationship to one another. So what do you recommend when these families, some of them your own neighbors, are in crisis?

5.) You claim that Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law "violates the intent of Oregon voters who in 2004 adopted a constitutional ban on gay marriage."

If this were in fact the case, file a lawsuit. If in fact it did violate Measure 36, you would win. I will give you some credit here though. You know that Domestic Partnerships in no way violate Measure 36--nor the "spirit of Measure 36". Hence why you and your fellow self-righteous bigots have failed to do so.

Oh and! I see that you fail to notice that the proponents of Measure 36 have stepped back and are not participating in the referendum attempt. They even know that Domestic Partnerships are a far cry from marriage.

6.) "The spirit of Measure 36"... what exactly is that? The way I see it the spirit of Measure 36 is damn evil by not only permanently inscribing blatant discrimination in Oregon's most sacred document, but locking Oregon families out of vital rights, protections and responsibilities.

7.) I think families are the backbone of society, whereas you could not be further away from this belief. Selectively shutting out couples, especially with children from protecting one another is just plain wrong. As you said in your voter guide statement: "Speaking of families, raising a successful and loving family in the '90's can be challenging".

Damn right--10 years later it's even harder.

In closing Mrs. Shannon, no "homosexual hacked into your computer". They are not "destroying your life", nor do they interfere with your life. In fact, you interfere with their lives.

You are a coward Mrs. Shannon. Your name will go down in Oregon's history books as a failure, a bigot and a woman who held little regard for the welfare of Oregon families. Shame on you. Shame.

Labels: 2008 elections, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum

After a hard fought battle in the legislature, Washington's newly passed Domestic Partnership law will go into effect this Monday. The registry grants some legal standing (less than a dozen rights and responsibilities) for same-sex couples and straight couples where at least one of the persons is 62 years or older. Both critics and supporters of the new law say the issue is far from settled.

Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington has said that from day one-even on the day they announced Domestic Partnerships, the first sentence out of their mouth was something to the tune of, "Don't get us wrong, we won't stop until we have full equal marriage."

Couples who register will have some of the same rights and obligations that married couples have. Those rights include hospital visitation rights, participation in medical care decisions, and inheritance rights. But the couples will not be able to file their federal taxes jointly or receive partner benefits from Social Security or other federal rights.

Washington is different as the residents cannot vote for a constitutional amendment as they can here in Oregon and many other states. What does this mean? It means that they will never have a constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-sex couples. The legislature would have vote on that and that will never happen.

Washington should be applauded for this small but necessary win for basic fairness for all Washington families and for keeping up the fight for full marriage equality.

Labels: domestic partnership, washington

This morning Basic Rights Oregon announced a victory in a court case-Parman v. Oregon. Here is a story from March of 2006 when the case was filed--below is what happened today at the press conference (the ruling was actually last Friday).

From BRO:
Oregon Court Rules that Oregon Laws Unconstitutionally Discriminate Against Children and Families of Same-Sex Parents

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge found that two Oregon state laws violate the state's constitution by discriminating against families headed by same-gender couples.

"This decision is a tremendous win for children, for families, and for our shared Oregon value of basic fairness," said John Hummel, Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon. "It validates the need for Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law to be implemented - not unnecessarily delayed or overturned by a referendum vote."

Judge Eric Bloch's decision in Parman v. Oregon et al holds that two Oregon laws (ORS 109.070 and ORS 109.243) granting parental rights to married couples unconstitutionally discriminate against families headed by same-gender couples.

Based on the landmark 1998 Tanner v. OHSU decision, Judge Bloch found that assigning benefits based on marriage, while not permitting same-sex couples access to these benefits, constitutes illegal discrimination against certain families. Plaintiffs in the case include K.D. Parman, 32, partner of nine years Jeana Frazzini, 34, and their two sons Emmett, 4, and Griffin, 1.

"We're thrilled by Judge Bloch's decision. Our family is really no different from any other family. We simply want to be treated fairly under the law, for our kids to have the same opportunities as any other child to succeed and thrive, and to do everything in our power to keep them safe. And that includes legal recognition for our family as a family," said Parman.

The decision brings Oregon's independent judicial branch into agreement with the Governor and Legislature, that that the state does in fact illegally discriminate against the families of same-sex couples, and that the Oregon Constitution requires this discrimination to end.

As a remedy, Judge Bloch found that Oregon's new Domestic Partnership to be one permissible solution to the problem, provided it goes into effect as scheduled on January 1, 2008. However, the future of Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law - and the future of many Oregon families - is still in jeopardy.

A signature-collection effort designed to delay and ultimately overturn Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law is already underway. Should this effort be successful, and Oregon's new Domestic Partnership Law be placed on the ballot, implementation of this law will be unnecessarily delayed until after the November 2008 election, and the law could be overturned altogether.

"We now know that delaying or overturning Oregon's Domestic Partnership law would not only hurt many children and families, it could precipitate a constitutional crisis," said Hummel. "Oregon's Domestic Partnership law must be allowed to go into effect on January 1st, 2008 - without delay... as required by Oregon's constitution, and for the sake of Oregon's children and families."

"From our family to all other Oregon families - we ask you NOT to sign the petitions that are designed to overturn Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law," urged Frazzini. "Please don't shut our family out from the ability to care for those we love."

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, lawsuit, oregon, parenting

I'm pretty impressed. The folks at Basic Rights Oregon launched a new campaign today called "50 Voices for Equality". It features 50 straight, yes straight Oregonians who are coming out in support of equality for gay and lesbians. They are also obviously voicing their support for the two recent laws passed in May. One being the Domestic Partnership law and the other being a statewide Anti-Discrimination law.

Sadly, anti-family, anti-fairness groups are currently attempting to do a referendum on these laws. Check out the video below about the new 50 Voices for Equality campaign and visit the site at www.50VoicesForEquality.com.

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, gay rights, referendum, straight allies

Today, Governor Kulongsoski signed into law a domestic partnership bill that would extend to same-sex couples the rights, benefits and responsibilities currently only available via a marriage contract... BUT only valid within the state of Oregon.

Today he also signed into law a comprehensive anti-discrimination bill that will outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodation, public education etc. Religious employers, institutions and organizations are exempt from this new law.

What an amazing day to be an Oregonian. Both laws go into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

Check out this viedo from the signing:

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, HB 2007, house bill 2007, kulongoski, legislature, SB 2, senate bill 2

Tomorrow, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski will sign Oregon's Domestic Partnership bill and a comprehensive anti-discrimination bill. The day has finally come. 34 years after the first anti-discrimination bill was introduced.

Tomorrow Oregon will also become the first state in the U.S. to pass any sort of relationship rights law after passing a constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-sex couples. There is no doubt that Domestic Partnerships are not marriage, but this bill is an amazing step forward in proving the invaluable rights to Oregon families who are currently otherwise unprotected.

The domestic partnership bill is obviously not portable to any other state, therefore as a couple you are legally strangers in the eyes of that state if you travel. It also doesn't afford to couples and their families the 1,138 rights and immunities granted at the federal level.

Again, that said, absolutely amazing! Tomorrow is historic in every way. Way to go Oregon, I'm proud to call you home.

-GS

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, house bill 2007, oregon, SB 2, senate bill 2

In a very surprising editorial this morning, the uber conservative David Reinhard writes a rather supportive piece on Oregon's Domestic Partnership bill that passed last week-to be signed by the Governor this week. His statements are below and some of our thoughts below that.

David Reinhard's Editorial:

Oregon's war over gay marriage ended this week, not with a bang but a whimper. The Senate passed not a bill establishing homosexual marriage or civil unions but one establishing domestic partnerships -- a legal contract giving gay and lesbian couples some of the benefits of marriage.

[...}

The domestic partnership bill the Senate passed last week and Gov. Ted Kulongoski will sign into law soon is the whimper -- and, really, "a big whup" for traditionalists. At least, it should be.

But social conservatives should look closely at what actually passed. It isn't marriage. That will remain between a man and woman in Oregon. The Democratic Legislature and Kulongoski only handed up a super-contract between two adults of the same gender.

Their domestic partnership act isn't marriage by another name, and even the bill's supporters know it. One Eugene gay man said, "It is kind of separate but not equal," and Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, had this to say last Wednesday on the Senate floor: "It's shameful that in the name of equality, we must set up a system of inequality."

[...]

It's hard to see this as much of a triumph for gay-rights forces -- or much of a threat to traditional marriage. Social conservatives should be honest with themselves, and be fair to gays and lesbians.

One, gay and lesbian couples do have justifiable, practical concerns. The domestic partnership bill may not have been the best way to address them, but it's good that these real concerns will be attended to. Having the law recognize that homosexual couples exist and face practical problems hardly gives homosexuality some societal stamp of approval or places same-sex arrangements on par with traditional marriage.

Two, far greater threats to marriage exist than the kind of domestic partnership arrangement we're talking about here. And homosexuality or gay rights -- or even same-sex marriage -- have little to do with these threats.

Truth to the tell, heterosexuals and heterosexuality are the real menace to marriage. Out-of-wedlock births and family nonformation, too-easy marriage and too-easy divorce, a me-centric approach to marriage on the part of adults and a silly, sex-obsessed popular culture -- no, heteros have been doing a bang-up job of undermining marriage all on their own.

If social conservatives want to do something to bolster marriage, their time would be better spent working on these matters than fretting over Oregon's new domestic partnerships law.

While for the most part I completely agree with him for once, I can't help but wonder what the intent is. There is no doubt that I think he believes what he is saying, though it comes on the heels of "The Oregon Family Council" saying that they have "no plans" to do a referendum on the Domestic Partnership bill (House Bill 2007).

Am I just being paranoid in thinking that this all just plays a part in a bigger strategy of attempting to calm the Oregon Family Council's base? I mean they did get their folks in a frenzy around this legislation and now they have decided to not go for a referendum which is contrary to what they said they would probably end up doing if House Bill 2007 passed.

And not to beat a dead horse, but them doing a referendum, or even testifying against the bill is contrary to their prior public statements--like the following statements from the Oregon Family Council and the so-called "Defense of Marriage Coalition":

"Same-sex couples should seek marriage-like rights through another avenue, such as civil unions." Tim Nashif, Oregon Family Council Director and an organizer of the Measure 36 campaign, Bend Bulletin 8/20/2004

or

"If same-sex couples need legal protection, they should consult their legislative representatives. If they need legislation to do that, no one is going to stand in their way." Defense of Marriage Coalition Executive Director Mike White, Lincoln City News Guard 11/10/2004

Thoughts?

Labels: ballot measure, domestic partnership, HB 2007, house bill 2007, legislature, oregon, referendum

Done and done. Today, by a vote of 21-9 the Oregon Senate has voted to approve domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. Just weeks ago the Oregon Legislature passed a statewide anti-discrimination bill that includes sexual orientation and gender identity--becoming the 18th state to do so.

What an amazing day for all Oregonians.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

Tomorrow, the Oregon Senate plans to debate and vote on House Bill 2007, the Oregon Family Fairness Act. Already passed in the Oregon House and by a Senate Committee, HB 2007 would grants rights, responsponsibilities and protections currently only available via a marriage contract within the State of Oregon but with some limitations... about 1,143 of them.

Some of the limits of this legislation include:

No Portability: Unlike marriage, the protections afforded to a same-sex couple through a civil union are only available within the borders the state of Oregon. In other words, a same-sex couple traveling to another state or country will have none of the protections granted by civil unions.

No Federal Benefits: Unlike married couples, same-sex couples in a civil union gain no benefits under federal law, like filing of joint federal income taxes or entitlement to social security survivor benefits.

Residency Requirement: Unlike marriage, there is an Oregon state residency requirement to enter into a civil union.

Solemnization Unnecessary: Unlike marriage, a civil union is simply a civil contract, and does not require solemnization by a judicial officer, county clerk or member of the clergy.

Different Dissolution: Unlike dissolution of marriage (divorce), only Oregon courts can dissolve a civil union – regardless of where a couple seeking to “divorce” may live.

The other 1,138 rights, responsibilities and protections that come with marriage at the federal level are not available via Oregon's new Domestic Partnerships.

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, legislature, oregon

Yesterday, Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law, legislation to give gay and lesbian couples some of the rights that come with marriage.

The domestic partnership bill will create a domestic partnership registry with the state, and provide enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

To be registered, couples would have to share a home, not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 18.

Now, California and Washington both have domestic partnership laws on the book. The two vary in the amount of rights given to those couples in the Domestic Partnership. Washington's give about a dozen rights and protections, whereas California's law is more expansive.

Oregon will soon be next on the short list of states that offer domestic partnerships benefits at a statewide level. Oregon's House Bill 2007 passed the Oregon House 34-26 this past week and is heading to the Oregon Senate shortly. This week Oregon also passed Senate Bill 2, The Oregon Equality Act, which will ban discrimination based on sexual orientation (GLBT or straight) in areas such as housing, employment, public accommodation and public education. The Governor has pledged to sign both bills when they reach his desk.

Labels: anti-discrimination, california, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2, washington

When the extremists aren't extreme enough. The crazies must step in. Today, I personally got a chance to witness the Oregon House votes on SB 2 and HB 2007. I also happened to be on my cell phone outside of the House Gallery while David Crowe of "Restore America" was also on his cell phone talking to a fellow extremist as they planned their next moves... meaning their next email.

Here it is...

House Defies the People of Oregon: Enshrines Another form of Marriage and Morality Into Oregon Law
April 17, 2007

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon - By a vote of 34-26 along party lines, the Oregon House of Representatives Voted today to override the will of the Oregon people, instituting same sex marriage by another name, 'domestic partnerships,' formerly titled 'civil unions.'

With every House democrat and three republicans voting for the first of Governor Kulongoski's political payoff bills, the House defied the people of Oregon who clearly said in 2004 that they wanted marriage to be between a man and a woman only.

Installing Coerced Acceptance of Immoral Behavior
By a vote of 35 to 25 with the same three republicans and one more joining all the democrats, the House completely ignored the well reasoned, objective, and clearly demonstrated objections to the bill by House Republicans.
In effect, they ignored the wisdom of several millennia, basing their arguments not on facts, but anecdotal stories, even asserting that all the categories provided protections in SB 2 were biologically determined, when in fact there is not one shred of evidence to support their position.

In short it was a scene of the worst sort of obfuscation, assertion without facts, feelings without wisdom, and political chicanery you can imagine. Clearly, there was an agenda without factual support, and the democrats could not withstand the truth. So they ignored it for what they believed was political benefit, to them and their supporters.

What Now?
The people of Oregon deserve people in office who respect their wishes, not those of a small minority who wish to impose their morality upon others while forcing acquiescence by using the authority of human law, in disregard of God's Law.
Our next step in opposing these bills is a Referral to the people of Oregon. They have the right to approve or disapprove the actions of the legislature. And considering the clear disinterest of the democrat majority to honor the will of the people, that is what should be done.

Given the fact that the Oregon Family Council (OFC) has stated publicly that they do not intend to initiate a referral, Restore America will. Christians are commanded to love our neighbor, not just place sandbags around the church to the neglect of those we, and He, say He loves. We are to stand for Truth and Righteousness, and that we shall do.

55,179 valid signatures of registered voters is required to place the Referendum on the next General Election Ballot. These laws would not go into effect until 30 days after that election.

Please continue to read and forward our Updates, Alerts, and Commentaries. More details will follow in the next few days.

How Our Representatives Voted
My next email will outline how our representatives voted. For now, it is important to get this information to you as quickly as possible.

"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked." Galatians 6:7
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31
"We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Romans 8:37
"Arise therefore, and be doing, and the LORD be with thee." I Chronicles 22:16

David Crowe
Executive Director

So there you have it. Not only do you have your fill of Bible verses for the day, you also see that "Restore America" doesn't think that The Oregon Family Council is extreme enough and that SB 2 and HB 2007 will go to the ballot on "Restore America's" dime.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon, referendum, SB 2

Tomorrow, House Bill 2007 and Senate Bill 2 will get their first chance in the Oregon House. Basic Rights Oregon says that they will have live blog coverage starting right before floor session (session starts at 10am) tomorrow. We'll put a link up as soon as they have it up.

Tomorrow shall prove to be one of the biggest day in queer rights history in Oregon--and this time for the good.

Good night all! Here is to a successful tomorrow! I am going to try and be there during the vote, just can't promise it.

-Gavin

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

Just a quick update: Senate Bill 2 was just moments ago passed out of the Oregon House Rules Committee in a 5-1 vote.

Now both House Bill 2007 (domestic partnerships) and Senate Bill 2 (Anti-discrimination) will head to the floor for a full vote in the House.

-GS

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

This morning, the Oregon House Elections, Ethics and Rules Committee voted 5-2 in bipartisan support to recommend due pass on House Bill 2007.

For over six hours yesterday the committee heard testimony on this bill and Senate Bill 2, a bill that would ban discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation. This morning's work session was supposed to be on both SB 2 and HB 2007, but the committee needed more time to go through the testimony on Senate Bill 2, as most of the testimony was geared at that one. It seems that the already broad religious exemption is the main argument from the extremely right-leaning Christian right who oppose it. There may be discussion on that this evening at 5pm.

The problem is that these people who oppose the religious exemption as written are not simply opposed to the religious exemption as we heard loud and clear during testimony last night. They are simply anti-gay.

More to come.

For more related to these two bills:
House Bill 2007
Senate Bill 2
Oregon's Civil Rights Fight

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

So I'm sitting here at the Capitol waiting for the hearing on Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 2007 to begin. I got here pretty early and was lucky to witness the "Youth Morality". It was quite disgusting. If they were a "shining example" of youth morality--it's pretty damn sad. These 16, 17 and 18 year old kids had no clue why they were there other than to be used as pawns by the Oregon Family Council.

They came by the hundreds with stickers that read SB 2 & HB 2007 with a big "X" through it. Many of them are wearing about 5 of those all over their bodies and some had "One Man. One Woman. Yes on 36" bumper stickers on their backs. It is quite disgusting. I wanted to say to them, "That was so three years ago". But the humor would have been lost on them for a number of reasons. The main reason being that 95% of them only spoke Russian. Another funny observation was that many of these people were not even of voting age. Half of them didn't know why they were there and the other half would say "fag" or "dyke" as people on our side of the argument walked by them (which is a bit unavoidable as they are all out in the galleria).

Another funny thing that I noticed is that these boys are wearing these anti-gay stickers all over there body-yet sporting Dolce & Gabanna from head to toe. Did I mention Senate Bill 2 would cover perceived or real sexual orientation? 'Nuff said.

And finally the sad reality of the night was that you know there were plenty of closeted young adults there who are dragged out by their parents or by their Russian Orthodox youth group. I truly feel sorry for them.

-G.S.

Labels: anti gay, anti-discrimination, civil union, domestic partnership, gay rights, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

This morning the Oregon House Elections, Ethics and Rules Committee began to hear invited testimony on Oregon's House Bill 2007 and Senate Bill 2. Testimony was quite controlled, although it should get pretty nasty (from the opposition). They pull out all the Focus on the Family and right-wing hate group rhetoric.

It seems that the only arguement that they can actually try and put some muscle behind is the religious exemption in the bill. For more on that read this previous post.

Anyway, I plan on being at the public testimony tonight at 5:30pm--plans are for it to end at 9:30pm. Things are looking good though.

-GS

Labels: basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, HB 2007, legislature, oregon, SB 2

The Washington State Senate has passed a measure that would create domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.

It passed on a 28-19 vote over the objections of opponents who say the measure is essentially the same as gay marriage. Although if you look at the extreme lack of protections and rights this bill grants--any person with a brain can figure out that this bill comes VERY short of marriage.

The bill now goes to the House. Governor Gregoire is expected to sign it if it reaches her desk and speculation from sources tells us that it should pass the Washington House.

The bill would create a domestic partnership registry with the state. It would enhance rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will. To be registered, couples would have to share a home and not be married.

On a side note, this bill also cover straight couples where one partner is 62 or older.

Labels: domestic partnership, gay rights, legislature, washington