juni8,Mo«iustiPUtla
Initiotives/Bollots:
Signers Are Skipping
the likes of notorious anti-gay crusader David
Crowe, at whose home he used to attend informal
Thomas V. Harrison IV might be a familiar awareness-raising functions during the campaign.
name. He signed on as a chief petitioner for three
Why?
of the draft initiative petitions seeking to outlaw
“He and 1 are on different tracks.... I have
gay marriage in 2004, before the initiative that
other things I want to dedicate my time to,”
became Measure 36 was filed by other petition Harrison says.
ers. Harrison says that, encouraged by his pastor
Harrison is not alone, and one sign is this: Not
at Rivers of Life Church in Oregon City, he soon
a single anti-gay initiative petition or referendum
found himself as an active petition circulator and
since the 2004 Measure 36 “victory"—10 were
outspoken supporter for the measure. “To declare
filed and four reached the petition circulation
‘gay marriage’ is, in a cultural sense, an oxymo stage—has garnered enough signatures to reach
ron,” he says of his support for Measure 36, then
the ballot. Several of them, including three sepa
and now.
rately filed initiative petitions in early 2008 de
But don’t look for Harrison’s active involve
signed to repeal the Oregon Family Fairness Act
ment on any current or future anti-gay initiative
and Oregon Equality Act, failed to even reach
petitions. While he decried the passage of same-
circulation because of a prolonged legal appeals
sex domestic partnerships after 36 as “a typical
process brought on by pro-gay organizations like
political trick,” he says he’s since parted ways with
the American Civil Liberties Union and Basic
Rights Oregon.
Becky Groves
might have some
thing to do with
this shift. Groves,
1988: MEASURE 8. ‘Revokes Bon on Sexual Orientation
a professional
Discrimination in Executive Branch' (passed)
child care pro
vider and mother
of three in central
1992: MEASURE 9. ‘Government Cannot Facilitate. Must
Prineville (popu
Discourage Homosexuality. Other Behaviors' ’ (failed)
lation
9,990),
counts
herself
among the grow
1994: MEASURE 13. ‘Amends Constitution: Governments Cannot
ing ranks of pro
Approve. Create Classifications Based on. Homosexuality" (failed)
equality activists
in rural parts of
the state. She’s
1996: WITHDRAWN. According to the summer 1996 edition of ACLU
one of 15 active
Newsletter. ‘The OCA pulled the plug on its Daughter of 13’ anti-
members of Prin
gay measure after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Colorado's
eville’s
Human
Amendment 2 made it clear the measure was unconstitutional.’
Dignity
Group
and a card-carry
2000: MEASURE 9. "Prohibits Public School Instruction Encouraging.
ing PFLAG par
Promoting. Sanctioning Homosexual. Bisexual Behaviors" (failed)
ent of a gay son.
Groves remem
bers specifically
2004: MEASURE 36. "Amends Constitution: Only
the friendly wom
Marriage Between One Man and One Woman Is Valid
en who came to
or Legally Recognized os Marriage" (passed)
her door in 2000,
carefully
draw
ing out the risks
■
A W ngelic
1
Healing Hands, Inc.
of having openly gay teachers in public
schools and asking for her vote in sup
port of Measure 9.
“They wanted me to vote yes,”
she explains. “I politely said, ‘No,
thank you.’ ” Groves, for her part,
says she’d “definitely be involved
in educating about those (laws],
and it’s important that we keep
those laws in effect.”
Will we continue to see anti-
gay ballot measures and initiative
petitions in the years ahead?
“Absolutely,” says Basic Rights
Oregon’s executive director, Jeana
Frazzini, though she adds “the frame
may shift slightly,” especially to target
emerging anti-gay interests like gay
adoption and same-sex parents
rights.
Former state Sen. Marylin
Shannon, R-Brooks, one of Oregon’s
most reviled homophobes, looks at
the raw voting data and doesn’t see a
downward trend in anti-gay sentiment—quite the
opposite, in fact. Between 1992 and 2004, pro-gay
voters “had a net loss of 40,000 voters and we had
a gain of almost 400,000,” Shannon said in an
October 2007 interview with Just Out, referenc
ing general election votes on two very different
anti-gay ballot measures (see sidebar). “For the
people who are supporting these bills to say that
momentum is building for them, it’s just not true.
The momentum is going the other way.”
State Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, will happily
rattle oft her top-shelf platform issues in rapid-fire
succession: the sagging economy and energy crisis,
fiscal conservatism, government accountability.
Equality for sexual minorities is not high on her
list.
And yet, Berger is one of a growing number of
Oregon state legislators, on both sides of the aisle,
sponsoring and voting for pro-gay bills. In 2005
she co-sponsored Senate Bill 500, a precursor to
Senate Bill 2, the Oregon Family Fairness Act.
Continued on Page 23
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