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Matthew Corwin (left), 29, and Brennan Randel, 31
Waiting was out of the question.
The morning of Feb. 4, Matthew Corwin and Brennan Randel had
just got off working their usual overnight shift for a Portland technology
company. Exhausted and anxious about what sort of panicked scene might
ensue at the county offices—would there be protesters, pushy journalists,
a pipe bomb?—the two nevertheless made the hike to inner Southeast to
legally register their 10-year partnership. “OK, we’ll do this,” Randel
remembered thinking, “and then we’ll go home and go to bed.” Since mov
ing to Portland in 2003, they’ve reveled in the rain (“You can’t beat the
rain!” Corwin exclaimed in all seriousness, with a trace of Texas accent), in
the region’s choice food and drink (Randel is a Western Culinary Institute
alum and budding dietary manager) and what Corwin calls the “Portland
pragmatism”—people here, they find, are unabashedly themselves. “We’re
just everyday people,” Corwin said. “We enjoy a nice dinner and a bottle of
wine, and then we come home to pet the cats.”
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Judith Barrington (left), 63, and Ruth Gundle, 60
There were certain words that Judith Barrington was just not allowed to
use. Lesbian was one of them. Writing opinion pieces and reviews for The
Oregonian, she remembers specifically that word, which defined at least part
of her life, as being verboten in the pages of Portland’s hallowed major
daily until at least the late ’80s, when another critic, in the span of a sen
tence breathlessly praising Barrington’s own prose, noted the writer in this
manner: “Judith Barrington, comma, a lesbian, comma.” Words are impor
tant to Barrington and Ruth Gundle, her partner of 29 years. So is social
-justice. The two “met over a big fight” at Portland State University in 1979,
according to Gundle, who was an out lesbian and up for a major post at the
university. The PSU president at the time blocked her hiring; Barrington,
a part-time faculty member, was outraged and helped organize campus
protests. Love blossomed soon after. After deciding to get partnered, the
couple sent out an e-mail to friends and family, and they recounted a color
ful response: “It’s about time you two stopped shacking up!”
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John "Jack" Ulmer (left), 85, and Charles "Jerry" Liming, 74
At the fabulous party of a mutual friend 52 years ago in Cincinnati—the
living room turned into a dance floor, trays of hors d’ouevres and wine at
the ready—Jack Ulmer and Jerry Liming first shared a dance. It was, as
Liming notes, a very different time. “That was when if you danced with
someone, you danced with them,” he says. “You didn’t vibrate on the other
side of the room.” Ulmer, for his part, immediately liked what he saw: “His
personality and his body intrigued me, frankly.” Smoking a Parliament in
his red reclining chair, Liming hears this, wags his fingers and rolls his eyes.
The pair moved to Portland in the early '60s. (Liming is a Vancouver,
Wash., native.) They remember some of the city’s first gay bars, with names
like Half Moon and The Harbor. Ulmer is a former lawyer, and Liming
opened an antique shop at Southwest First Avenue and Yamhill Street:
Charlie’s Antiques. “We never hid our relationship, but we never flaunted
it,” said Liming, who added that the men, both veterans of the U.S. armed
services, had never in their lifetime attended a Gay Pride parade. “We
never danced down the middle of the street with feather boas like some of
these fools.”
Continued on Page 22
Dec. 3, 2007: Out-of-state anti-gay group the
Alliance Defense Fund files Lemons v. Bradbury
lawsuit in federal court—an attempt to revive its
failed referendum effort.
________ X—
Oct. 8, 2007: After following well-
established standard procedures for determining
how many of the signatures submitted were
actually valid, the Oregon secretary of state
announces that opponents of domestic
partnerships have failed to gather the necessary
signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Jan. 2. 2000: At candlelight vigils in seven cities,
Oregonians describe the harms caused by the delay in the
law. Basic Rights Oregon files a motion to intervene in the
suit; the motion is granted the next day.
Feb. 4, 2008: Domestic partnerships
begin. Committed, caring couples throughout
Oregon have access to the rights and legal
protections they deserve.
X
Dec. 28. 2007: Judge
Michael Mosman holds a hearing on
the request for a temporary
injunction of the lew and chooses to
grant it. Domestic partnerships will
not go into effect, at least until the
next hearing.
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Jac. 30, 2008:
More than 2,000
Oregonians gather in
Portland to rally in
support of domestic
partnerships.
Feb. 1, 2008: After a six-hour hearing,
Mosman rules against the Alliance Defense
Fund—confirming that it had failed to gather
the necessary signatures to put domestic
partnerships on the ballot for referendum. He
lifts the temporary injunction, allowing the
law to go into effect.