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pmïïîTl news
g J u s t «Mt r august fiL 19 SS
rom the start of the 1999 legislative ses
sion, Tanner was the target.
In December, the Oregon Court of
Appeals issued a ruling in Tanner vs. OHSU out
lawing job discrimination based on sexual orien
tation across Oregon.
The state attorney general’s office said the
ruling puts sexual orientation on the same level
as gender discrimination.
“This tells Oregonians that discrimination
based on sexual orientation in employment,
public and private, is illegal,” Deputy Attorney
General David Schuman told reporters.
The ruling also stipulated that all state and
local governments in Oregon must offer spousal
benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of
their employees.
Gay rights advocates were obviously pleased,
but some lawmakers were irate.
When the Legislature convened Jan. 11,
would have specifically considered the Witt-
Mannix referrals.
House Joint Resolution 4 proposed an
amendment to the Oregon Constitution to
require that legislators establish laws which “rec
ognize, enhance and support marriage.” In this
case, marriage pertained explicitly to a civil con
tract between a male and a female.
House Joint Resolution 5 sought to amend
the constitution to say state or local govern
ments could not provide insurance benefits to
the partner of an “employee who is not married
to the employee” unless the benefits were
approved by a majority of voters.
House Joint Resolution 6 also sought to
amend the constitution. It would have forced
state and local governments to obtain voter
approval before prohibiting discrimination
based on “the sexual practices or sexual orienta
tion of a person.”
The anti-queer package didn’t end there.
House Bill 2076, promoted by Rep. Ron Sun-
seri, a Republican from Gresham, blocked sex-
reassignment surgery from the list of health ser
vices covered under the Oregon Health Plan.
Though it made it to the floor, it was sent back
to committee to die.
state Reps. Bill Witt, a Republican from Beaver
ton, and Kevin Mannix, a Salem Republican,
let loose with three measures designed to undo
the effects of Tanner.
In a legislative preview in Just Out’s Jan. 8
issue, Mannix said: “I do think [the court] really
ran away with this one. There are times where a
particular revolutionary court decision requires
a reaction.”
The Democrat-tumed-Republican didn’t
disappoint. He, along with Witt, reacted with
precision and speed.
The duo immediately began pushing House
Joint Resolutions 4, 5 and 6, which, if passed,
would have smashed Tanner to bits.
The measures were referrals: If approved by
the Legislature, they would have gone directly
to a state ballot for a vote, circumventing a pos
sible gubernatorial veto.
Mannix attempted to advance another mea
sure, House Bill 2354, which sought a special
election (for this past May) in which voters
HJR5 and HJR6— and for some time
HJR4— languished in the House Civil Judiciary
Committee.
Not much was happening until the emer
gence of House Joint Resolution 29, under
which Oregonians would have been asked to
vote in a Nov. 2 special election to define mar
riage as the union between a man and a woman
and to invalidate Tanner.
On May 28, HJR29 got a hearing. Among
those testifying against the measure was Chris
tine Tanner, a plaintiff in the Tanner case.
“You will no doubt recall the series of mea
sures, since 1988, that Oregon voters had to
decide on,” she told the committee. “For each of
those measures, scores of Oregon citizens spent
thousands of hours campaigning to prevent
legalization of discrimination. We have so many
more important issues facing us, issues which do
not make enemies of some part of our elec
torate.”
Jimmy and Norma Walters of Tigard, who
I t ’ s
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