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credit for the successes and responsibility for the
failures. You must build upon your foundations
to put us back on the path to equality. Integrate
To the E ditor :
your organization into a national coalition
under national leadership. The voices of our
n your e-mail of July 1 to your members and
supporters, you describe how Oregon legisla community and those like yourselves who repre
tors have received thousands of phone calls, sent us, together with those of our brothers and
e-mails, faxes and letters from Oregonians ask sisters, mothers and fathers, children, friends
ing for a vote on Senate Bill 1000.
and co-workers in every state, must once again
As recently as a week ago, you assured Basic
he joined and heard loudly and clearly. We must
Rights Oregon supporters there was plenty of unify with those whose goals we share and who
rime to get a Senate vote and successfully move
support us in our schools, in our places of work
the hill to the House for a vote before the end of and at every level of government. If temporary
the current session. Anyone who understands
defeats are not eventually turned into lasting
how the legislative process works knows that
victory, and if we are unable to claim the rights
any piece of legislation not enacted in the cur to which we are entitled under the Constitu
rent session dies at the end of that session. Any
tion, we will face defeat over and over again.
effort to promote this same type of hill in a
future legislative session would have to begin
J ames H ernandez
Portland
anew.
And now, in your July 1 correspondence, you
tell us to “Accept No Excuses.” You begin to
gird us for defeat. What a difference a week
makes.
To the E ditor :
You should not he surprised that the repre
hank you for your letter and for giving me
sentatives in Salem have chosen to “sit” on this
a chance to reply. 1 appreciate the passion
piece of legislation, ensuring that it is never
behind your words, although I have to admit
passed. Even if it does receive the benefit of a
that the tone of your letter seems a hit harsh.
vote in the Senate and moves to the House, the
Where it seems we differ is in expectation.
chances of it passing in the House are close to
We are not naive about the complexities of the
none. It does not have anywhere near the sup political process nor about the tough battles
port in the House that it enjoys in the Senate.
ahead, but we are not so cynical about our abil
This should be of surprise to no one, especially
ity to influence the political process. Your letter
yourselves. Passage in only one chamber will not
seems to suggest that lobbying the Legislature is
suffice.
hopeless and unproductive. 1 just don’t believe
This is not to say that our community does
that is true. In fact, I think the Senate vote on
not have supporters in these two bodies. It does July 8 is a clear indication that our effort, com
mean, though, that we live in two vastly differ bined with that of thousands of Oregonians, has
ent Oregons—one that supports equal rights
made an impact. And I believe we still can.
regardless of sexual orientation, and one that
When we sent out an e-mail asking people to
does not. We of the “same-sex” community, our
“Accept No Excuses,” we wanted exactly what
legislators and BRO have failed to bridge that
we said we wanted: for people to put pressure on
cultural divide.
the Senate to bring the hill to a vote, which it
You cannot honestly tell the Oregon same-
did by almost a 2-1 margin. As we move to the
sex community you are surprised by the lack of House, we are of course aware that this is a
movement in both the Oregon Senate and
tougher political climate. Having lobbied the
House.
House all session, we don’t share your view that
I believe we must consider shifting our
there is little support for this hill in the House.
resources and changing the front on which the
In fact, we believe as a result of our direct con
battle is to he waged. If you consider that Presi versations with legislators, we have the votes in
dent Bush supports a “one woman, one man”
the House to pass the bill if we can get it to the
marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
floor. There is one person standing between
you should realize our opponents no longer view
defeat and victory, and that is Speaker Karen
it as an issue of states’ rights hut one of federal,
Minnis. As a community, we cannot let her sin
civil and constitutional rights. It would take
gle-handedly stand in the way of our civil rights,
years to achieve uniformity in marriage law for and I believe we owe it to ourselves to push as
same-sex couples on a state-to-state basis, trying
hard as we can for the rights we deserve.
to win (and maintain in the courts) 50 consec
This is good news for all of us in Oregon, and
utive victories. It makes more sense to redirect
I can’t predict how it will all turn out. But we
your energies toward a national strategy. Even if will not throw up our hands just because some
some states support marriage equality, it would
say it is impossible or too hard. The minute we
likely take many, many years for those of us who
as a movement give into this kind of hopeless
seek marriage justice to realize any benefit from
ness, we concede defeat. That is something we
50 localized skirmishes.
just won’t do.
When you should have been positively shap
I’m sorry you don’t agree with our approach
ing public opinion in 2004 toward the idea that
last year, but 1 hope you’ll believe me that we
gays and lesbians deserve equal rights (instead of would have had a ballot measure regardless of
jumping on the “marriage” handwagon), your
whether the marriages in Multnomah County
time and resources were first spent defending had happened or not. Not only was the measure
the issuance of marriage licenses and later in
filed well before the marriages began, hut 11
attempting to defeat a subsequent “one woman,
states had similar measures last year, and Oregon
one man” marriage measure that was bom in
was the only one where any same-sex couples
direct response to your involvement in the got married. When I tell people who work in
issuance of the (ultimately invalid) marriage
other states that our opponents blame us for the
licenses. From those “leadership” decisions, and
ballot measure, they laugh, because they know
the summary legal judgments and legislation
that these measures were part of a national strat
that have resulted, the terrain of the conflict has
egy to turn out evangelical voters. We should he
been irrevocably changed, and your strategies—
wary of blaming ourselves and our organizations
our strategies—must change to adapt to the new
for not immediately succeeding in creating deep
environment.
social change—that takes decades, and while we
have made some amazing progress, I agree with
At some point, you have to stand up and
acknowledge your tactical errors, tell us where
you that we have a long way to go.
you succeeded and where you failed and take
I think you raise some interesting points
An open letter to Basic
Rights Oregon
I
BRO responds
T