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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2007)
14 justout QCIOBtR 19. ¿007 northwest Referenda Campaign Fails New laws go into effect in January by Julie Sabatier Not Into Leather? lay ecoJriendlv textiles Downtown SW 4th & Washington 503.226.3255 888.695.8180 P ortland LUGGAGE Beaverton Town Square 503.641.3456 PortlandLuggage.com Realtor Sinee . - *ND PR0UD S,NCE ’9Zo rr when you buy or sell a home with Mercy Corps Lesbian Community Project me. vou ll kww your Mirs are J 999f J t North x NE Medical Clinic belying suyyort a greater cause. OSPIRG L Portland Lesbian Choir l I cohtrikk at least 10% of m y earnings to community ami environmental organizations. F J Q Center Nat'l Gay & Lesbian Taskforce ACLU MILLYNN JAMES Broker, Graduate Realtor Institute ABR. Accredited Buyer's Representative 503.330.HOME (4663) • 1.800.825.9948 www.millynn.com • millynn@aol.com he sexual minorities com munity breathed a collective sigh of relief Oct. 12. Word came from Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury’s office that the ad hoc group seeking to refer the states nondiscrimination law to the November 2008 ballot had failed to collect the 55,179 valid signatures it needed to do so. This news came four days after the announcement that the group had failed to gather enough valid signa tures to refer the domestic partnership law to the ballot. Both laws, passed in the 2007 legislative session, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2008. “We are so ecstatic and thrilled and relieved. It’s just a historic week for Oregon," said John Hummel, execu tive director of Basic Rights Oregon. John Hummel told a group Sept. 26 in Salem that Basic “1 think that the fact that they were Rights Oregon would monitor the verification process. unable to meet even this extremely low signature threshold shows just how out of step this According to Shannon, the petitioners have small group of extremists are with Oregon values.” decided not to take legal action at this point. A number of groups mobilized signature “The chief petitioners are not going to pursue gatherers—Restore America and Defense of suing [the secretary of state], but other people • Marriage and Family AGAIN! among them— might,” she said. “There are some attorneys look although none had the fund-raising power of the ing into it.” Oregon Family Council, a Christian group respon Both Shannon’s group and Restore America sible for putting Measure 36 (which banned same- have said they will move forward with an effort to sex marriage in the state) on the 2004 ballot. The put a repeal initiative before voters in November council announced early that it would not be a part 2008 in lieu of the referenda. The groups would of the referendum effort. need to gather 82,769 valid signatures by July 3, “We’re a multi-issue organization,” said council 2008, to be successful in this campaign. spokesman Nick Graham. “We simply can’t run “We really don’t know what Oregon thinks a referendum on everything we disagree with the about this until Oregon votes,” said Shannon. Legislature about, and this is just another example.” Graham confirmed that the Oregon Family Members of the Oregon Constitution Party did Council will not take part in the repeal effort. get involved, although chairman Jack Brown Hummel says BRO is ready for a repeal cam stressed that the party itself was not a part of the paign. “Basic Rights Oregon is going to work day referendum campaign in any official capacity. He and night until the deadline for filing an initiative gathered signatures in his hometown of Grants Pass to make sure they don't make the ballot on that and says he was frustrated by the lack of leadership also. The wonderful news here is that the laws will in the signature-gathering effort. go into effect on Jan. 1, and that’s going to be very “It was like a jellyfish; it had no form,” he said. difficult for our opposition to face.” “There were several groups that were all working it; A smaller group, which emerged in opposition some were more nebulous than others." to the referendum campaign, says it is not going The groups collected 60,531 signatures for the forward to combat a possible repeal. Know Thy petition to put the domestic partnership law before Neighbor Oregon, which pledged to publish on its voters in November. Of those 60,531 signatures, Web site the names and addresses of those who 55,063 were valid, according to Bradbury’s office. signed the referendum petitions if they qualified for With an unprecedented 90.97 percent validity rate, the ballot, will not post the information. the groups still fell 116 signatures short of what it “There are many reasons for it,” spokesman needed. Brandon Berg told Just Out via e-mail. “One being The numbers for the referendum on the non that it would provide the opposition with a direct discrimination law were even lower. Of the 59,761 link to a database of folks for them to contact if signatures collected, only 53,875 were valid. Even they attempt a repeal in 2008." with another unusually high validity rate of 90.15 Berg added that he hoped his all-volunteer percent, the groups still needed 1,304 more organization had done something to discourage signatures. people from signing the petitions. “If it did, in fact, “We just didn’t quite get enough.... We wished act as a deterrent, it was simply because anti-gay it would have passed, but we’re not discouraged,” Oregonians didn’t want their family, friends and said former state Sen. Marylin Shannon, R-Salem, neighbors to know that they signed their name in spokeswoman for the chief petitioners. support of blatant discrimination,” he said.
