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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 2, 2004)
20 news A mendment A mended G a rd e n F e v e r!_ your /» ci^A¿>orAooafn u rse ry Language reworded on the eve of Senate committee hearing mumm» f / a h f s , T o o ts $ £ o o d t£ ? ir f 3 4 3 3 N E 2 4 T H P O R T L A N D O R A V E N U E 9 7 2 1 2 Mm 5 0 3 .2 8 7 .3 2 0 0 )A ÆMM 'R ieh ctrt/ ¿ I /-o rt P o//t*ier O w n ers Call today for a free qualification over the phone First Time Buyers ♦ FHA/VA Loons Self-Employed ♦ Complicated Borrowers Bankruptcies & Foreclosures ♦ Credit Problems Investment Properties ♦ Pre-approvals 100% Financing Programs “After a long day on the job site, nothing beats bubbles and beer in my remodeled bathroom. Thanks for taking our hands and guiding us through the maze of refinancing. We couldn't have done it without your care and expertise / ” - Bryan Û Christine C. Hall Senior Loan Consultant President's Club 5 0 3 -6 9 8 -5 4 2 9 3L1 800 ) 41 - 9941 501 - 101-1941 * l\if?cr ballc^'eaglehomemortgage.com LAURE LH URST D E N T I S T R Y C larice J ohnston & Mechanics that fix everything»! Including your conscience. on same-sex marriage by Bob Roehr T he Senates third hearing on the “threat” of same-sex marriage March 23 was a strange mix of acri mony and ennui. In the end, it was unclear whether any movement had been made in any direction, or when the committee might again take up the issue. “The traditional institution of marriage is not about discrimination— it is about children,” asserted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. “Activist judges,” in finding that banning same-sex couples from marrying discriminates against them, are “accusing ordinary Americans of prejudice, while abolishing American tradi tions by judicial fiat,” he said. “The only way to save laws deemed ‘unconstitutional’ hy activist judges is a constitutional amendment.” Cornyn said these activists “accuse others of writing discrimination into the Constitution, yet they are the ones writing the American peo Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., claimed he ple out of our constitutional demtKracy.” tinkered with the Federal Marriage Amendment Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the rank to make his original intent more clear ing Democrat on the committee, called the Federal amendment would prohibit states from offering Marriage Amendment “ill-timed and ill-advised.... protections such as those of civil unions and It would, if enacted, become the first amendment to domestic partner benefits. limit rights” and inject the federal government into "We want to express love in the same way the area of family law, which heretofore had been that you do,” Frank said. “If I chixwe to associate the sole responsibility of the states. with another man, how does that hurt you? She laid into a revised version of the FMA “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. introduced only the day before hy Sen. Wayne What you have with marriage, we admire it, we Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Kith C ol would like to he able to share it,” Frank said. “If orado Republicans and original sponsors of the you are not prepared to make it illegal for gays to amendment. “I think thjs change of language is a gcxxl | have children, and few people are proposing that, then how can you justify not giving those indication of how controversial and complex children the same legal protections that their this issue is. Here, on the eve of a hearing into sch(X)lmates have in their households.7” the text of one amendment, we see a change in Frank pointed to Massachusetts, where a language so dramatic that we are now really con fronted with a different amendment altogether, constitutional amendment to ban same-sex with its own unique problems," Feinstein said. I marriage is likely to he put to the citizens to vote up or down. But the FMA would preclude that, Amending the Constitution “is not a process he said. “If the people decide to allow [same-sex best done overnight, on a moment’s notice." Allard called the changes a minor tinkering marriage], you will cancel it out.” to make his original intent more clear. Those Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a longtime civil rights activist and ordained Baptist minister, said, were to define marriage as only between a man and a woman; to provide a definite role for the “I oppose any amendment that seeks to write dis state legislatures in enacting other types of legal crimination into our United States Constitu tion.” Conservatives have scorned any attempt protections for same-sex couples; and to limit the judiciary. to link the black and gay civil rights movements. Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., was “I ask the question: Where would we he as a at his most combative as the second witness on nation if Congress in 1954, 50 years ago, had rad the panel of experts. 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