Despite recent advances in California and Washington, Oregon will not consider legalizing same-sex marriage until at least 2014.@@http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/in-the-news/washington-gay-marriage-law-could-be-boon-for-states-wedding-tourism-industries/@@
Washington signed same-sex marriage into law on Feb. 13@@http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/washington-gov-signs-gay-marriage-bill-law-15579570@@, making it the seventh in the nation to legalize gay marriage@@http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/23/us/maryland-same-sex-marriage/index.html@@. The law will not take effect until June 7, 2012.@@http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/washington-gov-signs-gay-marriage-bill-law-15579570@@
California also took strides toward legalizing same-sex marriage by overturning Proposition 8, which claimed that marriage was between a man and a woman. The California Supreme Court declared that Prop. 8 was unconstitutional.
Yet Oregon passed a constitutional amendment in 2004 defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, which makes advocating for same-sex marriage in Oregon difficult.@@http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=546#.T0b8NcxqMnU@@
Basic Rights Oregon@@http://www.basicrights.org/@@, the largest LGBTQA advocacy group in the state, continues to work toward legalizing same-sex marriage.
“We are super excited about winning the freedom to marry in Washington. We feel that that it will bring us closer in Oregon. We’ve been working on marriage equality for a long time and have seen significant gains,” communications manager for Basic Rights Oregon Sasha Bookert said.@@http://test.kboo.fm/audio/user/3171?page=157@@
This excitement has not translated into a change in long-term plans for BRO.
“It hasn’t impacted our strategy toward how we intend to proceed with our goals. We’ve seen a double-digit increase in support in the last three years and expect that to continue,” she said. BRO intends to keep campaigning and hopes to put the issue on the ballot in the near future.
Last November, BRO decided to not put the issue on the 2012 ballot because they felt that there still was not enough public support for the issue at this time.
“BRO made a tough decision to not go through with pushing legislation forward,” said Maure Smith-Benanti@@http://dailyemerald.com/?s=Maure@@, assistant director of LGBT Educational Support Services Program. “I think many of our students were disappointed by that, but I think they realized that was the smart thing to do.”
Marissa Fergerson@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Marissa+Fergerson@@, a junior psychology major at the University, has been active in LGBTQA groups on campus in the past and is happy to see the progress made on the West Coast.
“I am thrilled that Washington and California are making progress. I think it’s given us a little more hope which is fantastic,” she said. “I don’t think it’s been a huge difference in the local LGBTQA community. Oregon’s not even putting anything on the ballot this year so we’re a long ways away.”
According to Smith-Benanti, the majority of LGBTQA students on campus do not see actively lobbying for same-sex marriage as a top priority. They would rather focus on homelessness and getting other basic needs met.@@how dare they care more about hungry people than about gay rights!@@
“I think that picking the battles that you can win is the smartest way to advance LGBTQA rights,” Smith-Benanti said. “I think that when the larger nation tells us that it is good to move, we’ll move. And when the experts tell us it’s time, and we ought to lobby, I think we will jump to.”