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H ere W e G o A gain
The OCA is back, this time with two measures that have its
opponents very, very nervous by Inga Sorensen
HOSPITA
Every Monday
7-9 PM
Community Action Bldg.
1001 SW Baseline
Hillsboro, OR
223-5907 ext. 170
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make-or-break time for the
Oregon Citizens Alliance.
“It certainly could be described
like that,” says Jean Harris, execu­
tive director of Basic Rights Oregon, who has
been crisscrossing the country trying to raise
money in preparation for another rumble with
the anti-gay-, anti-trans-, anti-abortion-rights
group.
Some may think the OCA is dead in the
water, given founding director Lon Mabon's
dismal showing two years ago in a U.S. Senate
primary race and the organization’s inability to
place any measure on the 1996 ballot.
“But this initiative is somewhat different,”
says Harris, referring to the OCA’s proposed
constitutional amendment that seeks in part to
prohibit state and local governments from pro­
viding benefits to employees’ unmarried part­
ners. It would also establish a definition of
“family” for government purposes as consisting
exclusively of a man and a woman and any
children they might have.
The initiative reads, in part: “The People
recognize that the family is the foundational
unit essential for social health and the good
order of society and, therefore, establish as pub­
lic policy that the concept of family shall be
limited to one man and one woman in a mar­
riage covenant and their children, if any, gen-
erationally, both natural and adopted, or the
surviving members thereof...
“With reference to the term one man and
one woman, the People further recognize and,
therefore, establish as public policy that the
concept of the male-female relationship of sex­
ual affection is that which is natural to
mankind and that male-female gender is deter­
mined at the moment of conception...
“All state and local governments are, there­
fore, limited in that they may express approval
of, promote, sanction or otherwise make
acceptable only the will of the People as estab­
lished in this section.”
Some public agencies, including the cities
of Eugene and Portland, and Benton and
Multnomah counties, provide benefits to
employees’ unmarried partners. Domestic part­
nership benefit programs have given gay and
lesbian employees, who cannot legally marry
their same-sex partners, the opportunity to
receive benefits already enjoyed by their mar­
ried heterosexual colleagues.
Under this measure, state and local govern­
ments could only provide benefits to those fit­
ting the legal definition of family—namely
married heterosexuals and their children.
But the ramifications are much broader
than that, warns Dave Fidanque, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Oregon.
“It would not only impact domestic partner­
ship benefits,” he says. “The [measure] defines
family in such a narrow way we think it would
eliminate same-sex adoptions...but it would
also affect alternative insemination and an
array of fertility issues important to heterosexu­
als and gays and lesbians alike.”
As for the wording “male-female gender is
determined at the moment of conception,”
Fidanque says that’s clearly an attack on trans­
sexuals.
Though the ACLU is still studying the pos­
sible effects of the initiative—and probably
won’t have its assessment for a few more
weeks—Fidanque believes the measure could
demolish protections transsexuals have under
disability law.
ACLU attorney Charlie Hinkle adds, “It
could also prevent transsexuals from marrying
partners of the opposite sex, because it says gen­
der is determined at the moment of conception.”
What that means, says Hinkle, is people
would be considered legally as the sex they
were bom, despite any change they might
undergo in later life.
Says Fidanque: “This is undeniably a broad­
reaching initiative.”
Compared with past OCA initiatives, par­
ticularly 1992’s Ballot Measure 9, which
dubbed homosexuality “abnormal and per­
verse” and linked it with pedophilia and bes­
tiality, this proposal doesn’t even mention
homosexuality.
In an interview published Jan. 5 in Eugene’s
Register Guard, Mabon said: “What we simply
say is the male-female relationship is the natur­
al relationship and the government can only
recognize it.”
Some political observers say voters who may
have rejected past OCA initiatives due to
severe wording may find this proposal more
palatable.
Additionally, the measure, if cast as a cost­
saving initiative, could appeal to voters who
feel strained by taxation.
An editorial in the Jan. 4 issue of the
Register Guard speculates: “If the OCA gets this
measure on the ballot, its chances of winning
voter approval must be rated high.”
The OCA needs to gather 97,681 valid sig­
natures by July 2 to place the measure on the
Nov. 3 ballot.
“The last I heard, the OCA had collected
40,000 signatures,” Harris says, adding that the
group is reportedly working very closely with
the Oregon Christian Coalition on the signi-
ture drive.
“[Initiative backers] have been spotted at
some sites here and there, but they seem to be
doing the bulk of their work very quietly,” says
Harris, who has been traveling coast to coast to
gather support and would ultimately like to
raise $2.5 million to fight the measure.
“We’re working under the assumption
they’ll get this on the ballot,” she says. “If that’s
the case, we’re going to need money to beat
this.”
The OCA is also promoting a constitution­
al amendment that seeks to ban abortions after
the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
According to news reports, Mabon boasted
that more than 50,000 signatures had been col­
lected by late December for the anti-abortion
measure.
In 1990 the OCA pushed an initiative to
prohibit all abortions, except in narrowly
restricted cases of rape and incest or to save the
mother’s life. Voters rejected that proposal by a
2-1 ratio.
Still, Lisa Horowitz, executive director of the
Oregon National Abortion and Repro-ductive
Rights Action League, says she is taking the
OCA’s latest initiative attempt very seriously.
“Lon’s credibility is already in question. If he
doesn’t marshal enough signatures for this, is he
done for? Maybe. So there’s a lot on the line for
everybody,” she says.
■ To volunteer for BASIC RIGHTS O regon , call
2224151; to assist O regon NARAL, call
223'4510.