Same-sex couples wed for the first time in Oregon’s history Wednesday after the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners’ office began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples , making it only the fourth local government in the nation to do so.
Protesters, police and hundreds of same-sex couples looking for licenses converged on the county headquarters in Southeast Portland Wednesday morning, the day after the Board of Commissioners first announced it would begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples.
University students who learned about Wednesday’s developments had different reactions to the news.
Sophomore Lizzi Esterberg, who is majoring in math and Italian, said she thinks Multnomah County’s decision is a step in the right direction and will help promote diversity and tolerance. She said the decision will draw same-sex couples to Multnomah County, which will help increase diversity.
She was surprised the decision came in Oregon, however.
“Oregon hasn’t really seemed like one of the most tolerant places,” Esterberg said. “The Northwest always seems kind of slow. That’s cool that we’re on the ball with something.”

Junior Aaron Foresman, who is studying marketing, was less eager to call the decision a victory. Foresman, a non-denominational Christian, said, “By allowing gay marriage you change the makeup of what marriage is meant to be.”
He said allowing same-sex marriages is “messing with something pretty sacred.” He’s not opposed to gay marriage, however, if it’s done in the name of love, rather than for the pursuit of financial benefits, he said.
Foresman said he was not particularly surprised it happened in Oregon, adding that he is almost surprised it didn’t happen in Lane County.
Sophomore business student Ruby Chen said she supports same-sex marriage.
“If we didn’t allow them to marry, it would mean we didn’t see them equally,” she said.
Chen said opponents of same-sex marriages are against it because married same-sex partners would demand more rights that garner considerable opposition, like the right to adopt children.
Sophomore economics major Joe Croson said he does not understand the opponents’ arguments.
“Personally, I think it’s ridiculous that so many people are against (same-sex marriage),” Croson said. “We’re a country of freedom, yet we deny such a basic freedom.”
Croson said he’s heard the argument that same-sex marriage conflicts with Christianity, but he does not agree that should mean repressing it in the United States.
“Our nation is not founded on Christianity,” he said. “It doesn’t seem right to me to use religion as a tool to suppress a sexual minority.”
But freshman business major Sweet Paul said she isn’t comfortable with same-sex marriages occurring. God had a purpose in creating Adam and Eve and that’s because he wanted men and women to join, not people of the same gender, she said.
“That’s not the way God made things,” Paul said.