Same-sex couples across the state had planned to celebrate the legalization of domestic partnerships on Jan. 2, but they were forced to change those plans after a judge suspended the ability to file for the partnerships, which grant them many of the same rights and legal protections as married couples. Candlelight vigils were held instead.
The fight was brought on by a Christian legal defense group from Arizona, the Alliance Defense Fund, that claims a petition to put the recently passed domestic partnership law on the November ballot was erroneously thrown out by the Secretary of State’s office.
Supporters of the law believe the group’s involvement has nothing to do with the democratic rights it advocates to be protecting, but is just an attempt to undercut the rights of gay and lesbian people in Oregon. Calls to the Alliance Defense Fund’s office were not immediately returned.
“Their spin is that this is about fairness and the electoral system, but that is because saying, ‘We are against the civil rights of domestic partnerships,’ is the wrong message,” said Becky Flynn, the regional director of Basic Rights Oregon. “It’s definitely just a right-wing Christian, out-of-state group against not just gays and lesbians, but equality.”
Evolving the rights of gay and lesbian couples in Oregon has been a long-fought battle, including the brief approval and immediate rejection of marriage licenses for same-sex couples in 2004. But the bureaucratic and religious fighting about the issue is taking a toll on some couples and wearing them down.
Melanie Haley, an EMU employee at the University, had planned to file for domestic partnership on Jan. 2 with her partner of four years, but now her life “is on hold basically,” she said. “After a while, you get tired of fighting for the same civil rights everybody else gets to enjoy. A lot of us are getting real tired of fighting for something so necessary.”
The state legislature passed the domestic partnership law in May, but those unhappy with the outcome organized a petition drive during the summer. In order to put the issue to a public vote, organizers needed 55,179 signatures, and exceeded that number by turning in 60,531 signatures in September.
According to Scott Moore, the spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, a statistical method was used to reject more than 5,000 invalid signatures, and the petitioners ultimately fell short of the referendum requirement by 98 signatures.
A group of people claimed their signatures were incorrectly thrown out, and the Alliance Defense Fund took up their cause and filed a lawsuit against the state. The group’s lawsuit claims the democratic rights of Oregon citizens were violated, and argues petition signature validation should be up to the same standards as ballot signature validation.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman suspended the law, and set a Feb. 1 date for both sides to argue their cases.
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