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| Oregon State House Speaker Karen Minnis said she will not bring
a civil unions bill passed last week in the state Senate to a vote in the House.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: DYANA BAGBY
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The Oregon Senate approved legislation last week that would legalize civil
unions for same-sex couples as well as prohibit discrimination based on sexual
orientation, just seven months after voters in the state passed a constitutional
amendment banning same-sex marriage.
But a spokesperson for House Speaker Karen Minnis (R-Wood Village) said this
week the bill, SB 1000, will not surface for a floor vote in the Republican-run
state House since it attempts to overrule the state measure approved last November.
“She will not bring the bill to the floor, because the bill effectively
creates marriage by another word and runs counter to the will of the people,”
said Charles Deister, a spokesperson for Minnis.
The state constitutional amendment, Measure 36, defines marriage as only between
a man and woman. It won approval Nov. 2 with 57 percent of the vote.
State Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown (D-Portland), the bisexual lead sponsor
of the bill, has said publicly she isn’t giving up on getting the legislation
through the House this session.
Brown could not be reached by press time, while gay rights lobbyists said
they would also continue fighting for the bill.
“We are trying to put a lot of pressure on the speaker. In the past,
she’s said the people’s representatives should decide [on such issues]
and in this case, we agree with her — let the people’s representatives
vote,” said Rebekah Kassell, spokesperson for Basic Rights Oregon, a statewide
gay rights organization that supports the legislation.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a staunch supporter of SB 1000, also urged the
legislature to send the bill to his desk for his signature.
Legislative sessions in Oregon typically end June 30, but lawmakers are still
hammering out a budget, extending the session until perhaps early August.
Tim Nashif, political director of the conservative Oregon Family Council,
said his organization opposes the civil union bill. The family group instead
supports a “reciprocal benefits” bill that gives some benefits to
all couples who can’t legally marry — such as same-sex couples as
well as relatives — because it does not use sexual orientation as a “litmus
test” for certain legal rights to families.
Nasif also questioned the civil union bill’s non-discrimination portion.
“It includes bisexuals, transsexuals, cross-dressers — and puts
them in the same category as African Americans. We consider that problematic,”
Nashif said.
But Kassell said while all families deserve certain legal rights, the reciprocal
benefits bill is wrong.
“We strongly object to same-gender couples being treated the same as
a mother and son,” Kassell said.
The July 8 vote in the Oregon Senate evoked strong emotions from legislators
who debated the issue for about two hours. The bill passed in a 19-10 vote,
with two Republicans supporting it while one Democrat opposed it.
Sen. Charles Starr (R-Hillsboro) said approving civil unions would “radically
change the definition of marriage.”
“Same-sex families always deny children a mother and father. This would
be a vast untested social experiment that would subject a generation of children
to the status of lab rats,” Starr said.
But Sen. Frank Morse (R-Albany), a co-sponsor of the bill who has a gay nephew,
said his religious convictions allowed him to show compassion for all loving
relationships.
“«NEXT»I recognize there are many for whom religious convictions
create barriers to accepting homosexual relationships. For me however, the answer
lies in defining destructive relationships, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual,”
he said.
The state’s only Fortune 500 company, Nike, recently voiced support
for Senate Bill 1000.
The Oregon Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the marriage licenses
granted to 3,000 couples by Multnomah County are not valid. Lawyers for nine
same-sex couples and Basic Rights Oregon asked the court to consider the constitutionality
of the state law specifying that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Citing the constitutional amendment, the court ruled only on the validity
of the 3,000 marriages, leaving the broader question of the constitutionality
of the state’s same-sex marriage ban unanswered.
To date, Connecticut and Vermont are the only states to offer civil unions.
Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex couples can legally marry.
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