I know it is second-class, separate-but-equal protection, but I still consider this good news.
(KGW.com) SALEM — Same-sex couples would get most of the legal benefits of marriage under a civil union bill easily passed Friday afternoon by the Oregon Senate.
The measure was approved on a 19-10 vote after more than two hours of often-passionate debate, but appears doomed in the Republican-run Oregon House.
Chuck Deister, spokesman for House Speaker Karen Minnis, said there are no plans to bring Senate Bill 1000 to a vote in her chamber.
What? A Republican that wants to obstruct the business of the state? A Republican that wants to thwart the will of the people? Up or down vote, Speaker Minnis! Up or down! A fair up or down vote! Do the people’s business! Up or down!
Feel free to send Speaker Minnis a letter, a fax, a phone call, or an e-mail:
Speaker Minnis
900 Court St. NE, Room 269
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-986-1200 — Fax: 503-986-1201
E-mail: [email protected]
Don’t let her hide from the will of the people! A plurality of Oregonians surveyed support civil unions protection for our taxpaying gay Oregon citizens:
(KATU.com) [A] statewide poll released Monday showed there is more support than opposition among Oregon voters for civil unions.
The survey, conducted by Riley Research Associates, found that 49 percent of Oregon voters support civil unions – compared to 30 percent opposed and 21 percent undecided. The poll’s margin of error is 4.5 percent.
C’mon Speaker Minnis, why are you afraid of an up or down vote? Because you’d lose it? Because the state’s largest private corporation, Nike, would like to see the bill passed, too, saying, “Civil unions promote inclusion by providing all our employees the opportunity to enter into lasting permanent relationships without regard to sexual orientation. Many of our employees’ lives will be better because of the passage of these bills.”
“The House has to deliver this bill,” [Oregon Gov. Ted] Kulongoski said. “Let’s go and tell the House, ‘we want this bill before we go home.'”
“We call on the Speaker of the House to put people above politics and immediately bring SB 1000 to an up or down vote on the House floor,” said Roey Thorpe, executive director of the group Basic Rights Oregon.
Thorpe predicted the civil union measure, if allowed a vote on the House floor, would pass and become law.
This bill is more than just civil unions; it also bans discrimination against Oregon citizens based on sexual orientation. Of course during the fight for civil rights, we hear the same tired old lame-ass rhetoric from the homophobic party:
Republican Sen. Jeff Kruse of Roseburg called the measure “another step down the road to Armageddon” and questioned whether pedophiles will want equal rights. (Because, you know, two adults of the same sex wishing the legal recognition of their commitment is just like sick degenerates that rape children.)
But state Sen. Charles Starr, R-Hillsboro, said the development of same-sex families “is a vast untested experiment” that often leaves children without fathers. He said homosexuality is not “an immutable characteristic” that justifies special rights for gays. (…which he knows for sure, because he is straight. And a behavioral scientist, clinical psychologist, and a trained biologist to boot.)
