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A L on T ime C oming
T
he Student Protection A ct II—
an anti-gay measure filed by the
O regon C itizens A llian ce in
December 2000— will not appear
on the Nov. 5 ballot, according to
chairm an Lon M abon, who called it a
“doomed effort.”
“We did not, in our estimation, gather
enough signatures or even close to gathering
enough signatures to qualify the initiative for
the ballot, so we’re not going to even turn in
what we had,” he told Just Out, referring to the
July 5 deadline. When asked for details on just
how short the O C A was, he replied, “Consider
ably— just leave it at that.”
The act would have prohibited public school
instruction that approves, promotes or endorses
homosexual or bisexual behaviors. Unlike
2000’s similar Measure 9, it included exceptions
involving A ID S education, suicide prevention
and teacher termination.
Mabon was found in contempt of court and
sent to jail Feb. 20 for refusing to participate in
lesbian photographer Catherine Stauffer’s on
going lawsuit to collect more than $40,000
owed to her for a 1991 assault. Upon his release
in April he admitted the case had "thrown a
major monkey wrench” into the signature-gath
ering process.
“It did take my wife and 1, obviously, numer
ous hours and quite a bit of our focus away from
recruiting volunteers and trying to get things
going— not only the time in jail but also leading
up to it and afterwards," he said. “But that in
and of itself was not the main problem.”
Mabon blamed most of the shortage on vol
unteer fatigue as well as new restrictions on sig
nature gathering. He denied that his failure to
qualify for the ballot indicates fewer Oregonians
agree with his positions.
“It’s not because there isn’t an interest out
there and a concern out there for the subject
matter of the initiative," he said. “We had just
gone through a major campaign...and our peo
ple were understandably tired and a little bit dis
illusioned in the fact that the state and much of
its media could lie about the initiative we had
then, and to just turn right around and put forth
the same effort again to get it back on the bal
lot— they were tired and wom out, and they did
not respond as they normally and usually do.”
Mabon cited an Oregon Supreme Court
decision restricting locations where organiza
tions can collect petition signatures, such as
strip malls and shopping centers. Still, he said
volunteers found a few places around the state
where they regularly could lure 20 to 25 sup
porters an hour.
“The reports we have is that people were
signing, in the few locations that we were at,
more enthusiastically than ever before,” he said.
Oregon Gtizens Alliance fails to collect enough signatures
for fall ballot by Jim Radosta
M
eanwhile, Mabon is kicking off his candi
dacy as the Oregon Constitution Party
nominee for U.S. Senate, a race he entered
because Republican Gordon Smith supports
some pro-gay legislation. He refused to consider
himself a possible “spoiler" in the contest even
though he might pull conservative votes from
the incumbent, giving the edge to Democrat
Bill Bradbury.
Smith “has every right and every ability to
gain and gamer support from any area,” Mabon
said. “If he doesn’t gain and gamer my support,
or people’s support like me, then to classify us,
by exercising our constitutional rights to get
somebody elected who supports our positions, as
‘spoiling’ his effort, 1 don’t think that’s fair.”
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LA R C 5E
ust Out also asked Mabon about the Com
mittee for Constitutional Courts, which was
established to raise money for his legal defense
against Stauffer. Director Jeremy Bowen solicit
ed funds from donors by promising they could
take a credit on their state taxes— a statute
intended only for political action committees
that advocate on behalf of a candidate, measure
or political party.
BRO board member Ellen Lowe filed a for
mal complaint June 21 with the Oregon Elec
tions Division requesting the committee be
fined for characterizing itself as a PAC. “Oregon
citizens should not be subsidizing Lon Mabon’s
personal legal defense,” attorney Margaret S.
Olney wrote in a letter to campaign finance
manager Fred Neal.
“Obviously, I was not involved in the deci
sion for Jeremy to start a PAC or to use the pro
ceeds for my legal defense, since I was detained,”
Mabon said. “I don’t think he’s done anything
improper or anything that a PAC can’t do, but
we’ll see.” JF1
J
Lon Mabon said his Feb. 20 arrest took the OCA’s focus away from the signature-gathering process
“People don’t realize how hard it is for a volun
teer organization to collect 100,000 signa
tures— or give or take whatever is needed,
whether it’s a constitutional [amendment] or
statutory. But even to collect 85 or 90,000 to
qualify a statutory is a major effort for a non
paying, grassroots-type organization.
“So when you couple those two things
together, it was pretty much a doomed effort this
time around. But we’ll be back.”
Mabon vowed to refile the measure for 2004
“fairly immediately” because the legal process to
allow signature gathering can take six to eight
months. He hinted at more wording changes but
said they would be “very minor.”
So, how does Mabon plan to overcome all of
these obstacles the next time around? He hopes
to get an earlier start, find more volunteers,
involve other organizations and gain access to
more congregations.
“If every church in the state just gave one
Sunday to collect signatures, we could collect
the signatures in one weekend,” he said. “But
getting them to do it is another matter. Maybe
they will realize that without their help, we’re
not going to protect the kids in the school from
this lifestyle being presented to them as good,
safe and normal.”
O
fficials at Basic Rights Oregon were pre
pared to mount a campaign to fight the
Student Protection Act II if it qualified for the
fall ballot: They already had received grant
money from the Human Rights Campaign and
the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and
were in the process of hiring a staff of activists.
Nonetheless, executive director Roey Thorpe
was relieved to learn her organization will have
one less challenge to overcome.
“We are pleased that Oregonians will not
have to fight another assault on their rights this
year,” she said. “Mabon blames his difficulties in
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court for his failure. But I do believe that it all
comes down to the fact that he promotes
extreme discrimination, and Oregonians don’t.”
Thorpe said BRO now will be able to con
centrate on proactively protecting queer rights,
supporting fair-minded candidates, opposing
hate crimes and increasing acceptance through
its educational programs. In the coming months
the organization also will decide on its agenda
for the next session of the Oregon Legislature.
“We hope to pass legislation that makes dis
crimination on the basis of sexual orientation
and gender identity illegal in our state,” Thorpe
said. “That would be our ultimate goal.”
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B asic R ights O regon will toast the coming
“ballot measure free" months during a special cele
bration from 6 to 8:30 p.m. July 8 at 3 Friends
Coffeehouse, 201 S.E . 12th Ave. For more infor
mation call 503-222-6151.
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