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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2011)
APRIL 1, 2011 • community’ ASSISTING OUR COMMUNITY WITH PROBATE AND OTHER END-OF-LIFE ISSUES Shelly (left) and Kristin Casteel were married in Victoria, B.C., in 2004. The Oregon couple was featured in a Basic Rights Oregon ad in support of marriage equality. www.bethallenlaw.com IWth Allen I aw other organizations. Local groups such as CAUSA and businesses including Nike have offered financial or in-kind donations. A re cord 500 people are expected at BRO’s annual Oregonians Against Discrimination Business Leaders Luncheon later this month. National gay rights groups are helping, too; last month, a representative from GLAAD came to Port land to handle media inquiries to BRO. The support is welcomed—and, if anything, BRO needs more of it. The group has already spent nearly $1 million on the education campaign, Frazzini says. A full-fledged ballot push could cost upwards of $3 million, which was the cost to fight Measure 36 in 2004, the measure that amended the Oregon Constitu tion to ban same-sex marriage. And the Oregon Family Council has al ready promised to fight marriage equality. “We’re not looking forward to it. We don’t want to do it,” says Tim Nashif, Oregon Fam ily Council board member. “But we will fight just as hard for marriage if not harder today or in 2012 as we did in 2004.” W ith the risks in mind, BRO is approach ing the 2012 date very cautiously. If the orga nization were to decide by August not to pursue the ballot measure next year, Frazzini says, it would not try again until 2014 or pos sibly 2016. “It’s a huge responsibility to make the call to go to ballot in 2012,” Frazzini says. “And it’s the reason why, as an organization, we ap proach this very much as a partnership with the community.’ i t ] Beth A. Allen, founding partner: winner of the Oregon Gay & Lesbian Law Association (0GALLA) Silver Jubilee Award: 0GALLA Award of Merit; and the Basic Rights Oregon Superhero Award. Selected as a 2010 Oregon Super Lawyer. Founding member of the BRO Legal Group; author of Same-Sex Marriage: a ' Conflicts of Law Analysis for Oregon; frequent local, state and national speaker on marriage equality. Mercedes-Benz of Portland Mercedes-Benz of Wilsonville Sat 1 la m to 5 p m 7 1 7 S W 1 0 th A ve NICE PEOPLE. REALLY NICE DEALS! “Surprisingly Affordable w w w .m a lo y s .c o m * HH I 2011 C300 Sport Now throu Visit us today! Indoor Showrooms 2 Convenient Locations Unparralled Service Mrecedes Benz »I Portland Mercedes Benz of Wilsonville 1605 SW Naito Parkway 25035 SW Parkwav Avenue 503 22B 8351 503 454 5000 To get involved w ith BRO's marriage equality campaign, go to marriagemattersoregon. org. 2.9% up to 66 mo. On Approved Credit, Tier I or II, through MB Financial Services. Fxpires 0 4 /1 3 /1 1 Think Fabulous P o r tla n d , O R 9 7 2 0 5 5 0 3 .2 2 3 .4 7 2 0 s Mercedes-Benz » M -F 1 0 a m to 5 :3 0 p m Adoptions Surrogacy Divorce, Custody Wills/Estate Planning Probate Employment Business Law 503.241.3103 Shelly. The picture fades to a straight couple, iden tified on the screen as Roger and Jeanie. “I would just say love is love,” Jeanie says. “You know, it belongs to everybody.” The ad produced for BRO is part of a three-week campaign and is playing on net work and cable channels, including during primetime, all over Oregon. It is the biggest investment in an education campaign that any LGBTQ_group has ever undertaken out side of an election year, says Thomas W heat- ley, organizing director at BRO. BRO has run similar ads before, but not in a campaign of this magnitude. Last summer, two ads ran in eight Oregon communities on cable. Freedom to M arry picked up one of the ads and aired it on C N N on Valentine’s Day this year. “I think it’s good to talk to people and let people see that, I don’t know, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Kristin says o f her experi ence shooting the ad. “Relationships are relationships.” Shelly and Kristin are poster children of sorts for the marriage campaign, but they also are examples of what BRO wants to see from the community: conversation about why mar riage matters. The ad campaign is just one part of this ef fort. BRO volunteers have knocked on 30,000 doors in two years. More than 900 personal videos on marriage have been recorded and shared online. BRO has also coordinated more than 50 house parties as venues for people to have the marriage conversation. As the work on the education campaign comes to a head, BRO is getting help from Workshop 13 M a lo y ’s offers a fa b u lo u s sele c tio n o f a n tiq u e a n d estate jew elry and fin e c u sto m jew elry, as w ell as restoration and repair services.
