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local news
o if you look at the big ticket item—
Oregon ENDA—this past legislative
session appears to have been a bust.
Right?
Not so, according to politicos who
say things could have been a lot worse.
“Oregon DOM A didn’t make it, and for that we
are really, really grateful,” says Barry Pack, execu
tive director of Right to Pride, an Oregon gay,
lesbian and bisexual rights organization that took
the lead in promoting ENDA and stifling DOMA.
As you well know by now, ENDA, a k a the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, sought to
prohibit employment discrimination based on
sexual orientation, while DOMA, a k a the De
fense of Marriage Act, aimed to bar equal mar
riage rights for same-sex couples.
ENDA cleared the House in April by a historic
40-20 vote, but was ultimately squashed by Sen
ate leadership. DOMA, meanwhile, seemed to be
on the fast track to passage when it flew through
the Senate in May.
Somewhat surprisingly, though, it stalled and
died in the House—but not before giving Pack a
few gray hairs.
“It was real touch and go during those final
hours. At the end of session, everyone is scram
bling and you just don’t know who to trust. You
don’t know who’s cutting what deals,” he says.
“After our experience with ENDA, when Senate
leadership kept shifting the rules on us, you get
extremely leery.”
According to Pack, conservative legislators
were making last-minute noises about jump-start
ing DOMA, which he says would have required
40 representatives of the 60-member House to
vote affirmatively to suspend the rules to allow
further movement on the bill.
“What our supporters did was work to ensure
those 40 votes weren’t there,” he says.
peaking of ENDA, the bill’s chief sponsor,
openly gay Rep. Chuck Carpenter, a Repub
lican from the Portland area, says he’s ex
tremely disappointed the bill flopped in the Senate.
“It’s frustrating. I’m fed up with the Senate,
not only because of ENDA but because of the
transportation bill as well,” Carpenter told Just
Out during Right to Pride’s annual summer Gar
den Party.
Traditionally held in a supporter’s private
garden, the July 12 event had an artistic bent—it
was situated in a semi-open air warehouse that
played home to the Portland Institute for Contem
porary Art’s “Garden Show,” an exhibit featuring
more than 100 works of art sourced from gardens.
A couple hundred folks turned out for the
fund-raiser, including Rep. Jim Hill of Hillsboro,
the GOP col league who banded with Carpenter to
play some political hardball to move ENDA.
The duo embarked upon some parliamentary
maneuvering, which caught House leadership by
S
It's a wrap
Another success is passage of HB2693.
Eighmey says in the past, the state Office for
Services to Children and Families insisted that
adoptions by same-gender couples involving cross
adoptions—each parent adopting the other parent’s
child—require two pre-adoption and two post
adoption home studies.
Married couples who cross-adopt, however,
only required one pre-adoption report, while a
post-adoption report was optional. Thanks to
HB2693, the policy applied to married couples
now extends to same-gender and unmarried
couples, as well.
Another score: Senate Bill 1129, sponsored by
Sen. Kate Brown (D-Portland), which creates a
“youth suicide prevention coordinator” to coordi
nate a statewide effort to reduce suicide among
young people.
Players look back at the ’97 legislative session from the
calmer vantage point of the RTP Garden Party
by Inga Sorensen
ighmey, always a vibrant and outspoken
character, is ending his House career with a
bang, albeit not the most pleasant one.
He, along with Reps. Margaret Carter (D-
Portland), Ron Adams (R-West Linn) and House
Speaker Lynn Lundquist (R-Powell Butte), are
defendants in a $39 million lawsuit brought by
Eugene resident Lawrence Carver.
The legislators confronted Carver back in Apri 1
as he was hanging an African American state
official in effigy as part of a protest at the Capitol.
The effigy of Kay Toran, director of the state
Office for Services to Children and Families, was
viewed as racist by some, and prompted the law
makers to tear it down.
“What I saw was a noose around a black
woman’sneck. Ittook me back to the 1950s, when
images of black people hanging were not un
usual,” says Eighmey, conceding he became in
credibly indignant and animated as he practically
climbed into Carver’s face.
Carver, meanwhile, has said the action was
not designed to be racist, but rather was a demon
stration against child welfare officials whom he
claims have taken his daughter from him.
Eighmey, a lawyer, admits it’s uncomfortable
being a named defendant in a lawsuit.
"After the incident I questioned my motives. I
questioned myself,” he says.
He adds, “Strangers on the street, black and
white, have come up to me to shake my hand and
thank me for standing up to that, which feels
good.”
E
Chuck Carpenter (left), George Eighmey and Jim Hill
surprise and ultimately led to a successful floor
vote on ENDA.
“When RTP asked me early on whether I
would support this, I said, yes, of course,” says
Hill. “I did what I did because it was the right thing
to do.”
Hill and Carpenter, both moderates, will likely
be targeted by conservative Republicans during
the primary election. Indeed, as we reported a few
months back, Oregon Republican Party leaders
sent letters to Hill and Carpenter essentially say
ing they’d better behave or consider switching
party affiliations.
“My mother told me to switch,” says Hill, a
lifelong Republican who hails from parents who
are also lifelong GOPers. (Hill’s mother is his
legislative secretary. He says she didn’t like the
way GOP leadership was acting and advised him
to make the move.)
‘Trust me, I was close to doing it,” says Hill,
adding that he intends to stick with his party—for
now, at least.
As for Carpenter, he says he’s going to take a
little vacation to Scotland to relax and reinvigo
rate before it’s time to begin the campaigning
process all over again.
ne familiar face you won’t see back in the
House next session is openly gay Rep.
George Eighmey (D-Portland).
In light of term limits, Eighmey’s pondering
some other options, most notably a run for a seat
on the Multnomah County Commission.
“It’s still early, but that’s what I’m looking at
at this point,” Eighmey told us at the Garden
Party. “I’m talking with people and getting feed
back.”
As for the 1997 legislative session, Eighmey
says it’s important to acknowledge the victories,
among them, passage of House Bill 3207, which
he introduced.
The measure, which has been signed into law,
requires that a deceased’s wishes or pre-arrange
ments as to the state of the body be fulfilled as
long as it is legal (e.g., burial or cremation).
Other bills that passed include House Bill
2779, which allows a designee to administer in
jections.
According to Eighmey, Oregon law had re
quired that only a close relative could administer
injections. H B2779, however, allows an individual
todesignate who may give an injection, which will
benefit same-gender couples among others.
O
A Q uick N ote : Former state Rep. Gail Shibley,
who ran unsuccessfully for a Portland City Coun
cil seat last election, was at the Garden Party
looking tan and well-rested.
When asked whether she is considering an
other run for public office, Shibley said she is
“exploring” possibilities, but remained extremely
tight-lipped on what those possibilities might be.
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