Authors of an initiative to ban same-sex marriage may start gathering signatures today, pending final approval of the ballot title by the Oregon Supreme Court.
If approved, supporters will have until July 2 to collect the 100,840 valid signatures necessary to put the initiative on the ballot. The signature drive is being led by the Defense of Marriage Coalition, an organization that has been involved in several court cases challenging same-sex marriage in Oregon. If enough signatures are gathered, the initiative will appear on the ballot as an Oregon constitutional amendment in November.
Although the Supreme Court on May 13 approved the ballot title — the entire text of the proposed initiative — it has to allow five business days for opponents to ask for reconsideration. Barring any requests, the court may issue its ruling as early as today.
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the title of the initiative on April 22, stating that its wording didn’t convey the subject matter, scope and effect of the measure, but the Supreme Court ruled that the title was acceptable.

Opponents argued the ballot wording should be changed to indicate that the initiative might alter the scope of Article 1, Section 20, which guarantees equal
treatment for all citizens.
If approved by the Supreme Court and voters this fall, the initiative would amend the Oregon Constitution to say: “It is the policy of Oregon, and its political subdivisions, that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage.”
The Defense of Marriage Coalition will begin collecting signatures as soon as the ballot title gains final approval, according to a coalition press release. Tim Nashif of the Defense of Marriage Coalition said he doesn’t expect any reconsideration requests, adding that any requests would be a misuse of procedure to stop the ballot initiative from going to voters.
“It’s almost unethical to do it,” he said. “There’s nothing to be reconsidered.”
Nashif said the group is gearing up to collect signatures.
“We consider ourselves right now in the petition-gathering stage,” he said.
Nashif also said he is hopeful that proponents will be able to gather enough signatures. He said his organization will pay close attention to making sure that petitioning guidelines are followed to ensure that valid signatures are collected.
He added that he hopes citizens become involved and give their input on the legality of same-sex marriage.
“We would like them, if they feel deeply about this issue, to get involved and help us gather signatures,” Nashif said.
Sophomore Cody Wilson said he feels taking the issue of gay marriage to voters is the right choice.
“I think it seems more logical to be decided by the voters,” he said. “I don’t think politicians deserve the right to decide something for this amount of people.”
Sophomore Erin Andrews disagreed, saying the Supreme Court should decide the fate of same-sex marriage.
“I think there’s too many people who are still against it, so there’d be no chance for same-sex marriages to happen,” she said.
House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, said last week that she will no longer bring up a similar measure designed to ban gay marriage in a June special session, which was initially set to work on tax reform. Minnis said she hopes the removal of the contentious issue will encourage Democrats to meet.
“Now that this issue is off the table for special session, I hope the Democrats, and particularly the Senate Democrats, will join us in June as we fulfill our duty to work on tax reform,” Minnis said in a May 14 press release. “We have a great opportunity before us to enact meaningful reforms — I hope the legislature will seize it.”
Dave Miller, chief of staff for the Senate Democratic Leadership Office, said Minnis’ decision doesn’t affect the stance of his party, saying tax reform issues should be the focus of any special session that is called.
“For us, we had never considered other issues aside from tax-reform (for the special session),” he said.