09/27/2007
Oregon Gay Rights Foes Meet Deadline to Turn in Signatures
"Pro-family" groups in Oregon met a September 26 deadline to turn in 55,179 signatures in a petition that would effectively halt the state's recently passed gay rights laws from going into effect on January 1st.
Last April, the Oregon legislature passed not only a sweeping domestic partners bill that would give same-sex couples in the state all the rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples (aside from the "marriage" name), but it also passed an important employment, housing, and public accomodations non-discrimination bill.
A group called Defense of Family and Marriage Again, spearheaded by former senator Marilyn Shannon, immediately began the signature drive that would eventually force the measures before voters on the November 2008 ballot.
According to the AP, "Conservative activists submitted what they said were about 63,000 signatures for each of the two referrals -- which after invalid signatures or flawed petition sheets are weeded out might still leave them with the needed 55,179 valid signatures."
Said Shannon: "I can't predict the future; my money is on us making it."
State officials said it would be several weeks before they could confirm the number of valid signatures.
Oregon's gay rights laws may face vote [ap]
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 10:40 AM EST by Andy in Discrimination, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, News, Oregon | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
... and this is why I left the state of Oregon last year. I grew tired of a fight with people and their closed minds.
Posted by: SB | Sep 27, 2007 10:49:52 AM
All I have to say is I am grateful that I don't live in Oregon. I simply don't know what else to say.
Posted by: matthew | Sep 27, 2007 10:54:00 AM
Wow. What a cunt. I don't use that term often, but in this case, it's warranted.
Posted by: Brian | Sep 27, 2007 11:03:10 AM
Ah, the assembly of god...Spreadin' Hate from State to State!
This bitch was a schoolteacher and an office clerk and somehow she sees it fit to step on other people.
Oh how I wish Ann Richards were still alive...
Posted by: FizziekruntNT | Sep 27, 2007 11:28:19 AM
Too bad. Oregon's a great state. Unfortunately, there are hatemongers like Marilyn Shannon in every state in the union. Move to another state, turn over a rock, they all come crawling out like centipedes.
Posted by: Frank L | Sep 27, 2007 12:01:25 PM
"This is why I left Oregon?" Uh huh - simmer down now, Norma Desmond. May I ask which gay shangri-la you're moving to, SB?
Oregon is a very liberal, progressive state. That this uptight bitch was barely able to get even ~50k signatures in a state of over 3m doesn't bode well for bill's chances for passage.
Oregon already has statewide domestic partnership laws. The governor is currently working on allowing civil unions, if not outright marriage.
Posted by: tservo | Sep 27, 2007 12:05:30 PM
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if upon review of the signatures it's found that the required number of signatures of valid, registered voters isn't met.
These people have a well earned bad reputation for forging signatures and using dirty tactics, like bait and switch, to get the numbers required to push a referendum
I hope Oregon has a Know Thy Neighbor organization like they have in MA. It will give the state's residents the chance to see if their names have been added to this petition without their knowledge or consent.
I take heart in the fact that these are clearly the last desperate gasps of a once powerful, homophobic, fundamentalist movement that is dying a slow (too slow) and painful death.
These people know that they are losing their self-proclaimed "culture war". That's why we're seeing such extreme and desperate moves. It's reminiscent of the viciousness and violence of racist segregationist when they realized that they were losing that other little "culture war" called the Civil Rights Movement in the South in the late 60's.
It's now OUR Season, Turn, Turn, Turn...
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 27, 2007 12:11:23 PM
I really just can't understand why there is so much hate in this world. I cannot imagine being so passionate about trying to stop something like this from happening.
Every time I read something like this, it makes me realize how many people out there really do not want us to exist.
Posted by: gabriel | Sep 27, 2007 12:18:56 PM
I wish I could "spar" with this uptight bitch...I would rip her a new one! Get a freakin life..
We have an unjust war, we have kids going to bed hungry...but damnit we better make certain we prevent those gays from fucking up marriage the way we have.
She should go join the Yahoo from Iran who claims that Iran doesn't have gay people, yeah...that is because they kill them there!!
Posted by: Paul | Sep 27, 2007 12:26:23 PM
I'd like to use my thumbs to poke her beady little eyes out.
Posted by: peterparker | Sep 27, 2007 12:36:41 PM
When will advocates of democracy realize that Civil Rights have ALWAYS been granted AGAINST the wishes of the majority? Integration and civil rights laws for African Americans were imposed by "activist" judges against the will of the majority of citizens in many States, and agaisnt the will of their democratically elected representatives. Why? Because it was the RIGHT thing to do. One duty of a civilized society is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Period.
Posted by: strepsi | Sep 27, 2007 12:54:53 PM
These laws weren't even "imposed" by "activist judges"; they were passed by the elected legislator and signed by the elected governor; representatives of the people.
GABRIEL, until gay people and their allies become as passionate about demanding GLBT civil rights as homophobes are about withholding them, we'll continue to suffer setbacks and we'll continue to sit in the back of the bus.
It has always astouded me that bigots can be so motivated and single minded in their push to deny other people rights while the people whose rights are being denied seem so unmotivated and apathetic.
Let's face it boys and girls, the success of the anti-gay movement is just as much result of our collective apathy as it is about their homophobic passion.
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 27, 2007 1:11:20 PM
p.parker,
lol, literally. and i'd like to punch her in the throat.
i'd like to be rational and philosophical like zeke right now, but i'm too pissed.
Posted by: nic | Sep 27, 2007 1:47:32 PM
The next Oregon initiative needs to be a proposal prohibiting any initiative whose purpose or effect is hostile to the rights of gays and lesbian. Isn't this like the eighteen bajillion anti-gay initiative put on the Oregon ballot in the last decade? At what point will the people of Oregon get fed up with these things? At the very least, the bar for getting these things on the ballot should be raised.
Posted by: Craig | Sep 27, 2007 2:13:31 PM
Can we have an initiative banning divorce? It's a biggest threat to marriage.
Posted by: dc-20008 | Sep 27, 2007 3:26:07 PM
LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!
Posted by: Paul | Sep 27, 2007 11:15:48 PM
Yeah Paul, we heard the EXACT same cries in Mississippi, Alabama and across the South in the late 60's after African-Americans were given voting rights and after segregation laws were struck down.
You're in real good company there bubba!
Same bigotry, different day!
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 28, 2007 5:40:53 PM
Today we have Paul and Michelle Jamieson visiting us from the Oregon Chapter of Focus on (someone else's) Family.
Please welcome them warmly.
Go ahead Paul. Tell us once again how teh gays are ruining uh-Merka and destroying the family and threatening your sacred marriage.
We've heard it a thousand times but it never gets old.
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 28, 2007 5:46:54 PM
Today we have Paul and Michelle Jamieson visiting us from the Oregon Chapter of Focus on (someone else's) Family.
Please welcome them warmly.
Go ahead Paul. Tell us once again how teh gays are ruining uh-Merka and destroying the family and threatening your sacred marriage.
We've heard it a thousand times but it never gets old.
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 28, 2007 5:48:06 PM
I'm from Oregon (currently in Indiana, quite a red state, let me tell you) and we've had nutjobs like this in Oregon for years. Google "Lon Mabon" and you'll be horrified. But I'll tell you, Oregon truly is one of the most gay-friendly, liberal places you could ever live. Portland was just chosen one of the top ten greenest cities in the US. The governor, Ted Kulongoski, is VERY pro-gay rights and gay marriage. I wouldn't worry about this psycho little group. Even if she gets her hate-filled initiative on the ballot, and for some godforsaken reason it passes, Ted will veto it. He won't have anything to do with that sh*t.
Check out this blog about basic rights in Oregon: http://basicrights.blogspot.com/
Carol
Posted by: devilgirl | Sep 29, 2007 10:43:34 AM
I didn't think the Oregon governor has the ability to veto a ballot initiative. Is that true?
Posted by: David | Sep 29, 2007 10:59:52 PM
"Today we have Paul and Michelle Jamieson visiting us from the Oregon Chapter of Focus on (someone else's) Family."
As a point of information I would share that Paul Jamieson is not from Oregon, but rather Massachusetts. He has been booted off the knowthyneighbor.org blogs for posting under multiple names. You can check for yourself and see some of the older posts in 2005 where he was first caught, then allowed to proceed again after apologizing. His hate is truly all consuming, and he spends his spare time posting his vitriol across the country on all the blogs he can find creating thousands of posts.
Thought you should know. Oh, and he likes to lie, so check the facts on everything he says for accuracy. If he says it's daytime, go check for yourself.
Posted by: John Hosty=Grinnell | Oct 3, 2007 12:20:18 PM