5
Street roots
July 22, 2011
Building the
Alture of
equality
B asic Rights Oregon’s executive
director talks about same-sex marriage,
health care fo r transgender City o f
Portland workers, and answers the big
question about a campaign fo r same-
____
sex marriage in Oregon
B Y STACY BROWNHILL
STAFF W RITER
For more information on
Basic Rights Oregon and to
fin d ways to get involved go
to www. basicrightsoregon.
com.
The ground on same-sex marriage is
shifting.
Last month, New York legalized gay
marriage, despite a Republican-controlled
Senate, making it the largest state where
gay and lesbian couples can wed. For the
first time, a majority of Americans support
same-sex marriage, according to Gallup and
several other recent national polls.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont,
New Hampshire, D.C. and several Native
American tribes also allow same-sex
marriage. What about Oregon?
Oregon voters banned same-sex marriage
six years ago by approving Measure 36,
which defined marriage as a union of one
man and one woman. Then in 2007, the
Legislature enacted domestic partnership
rights, which gave gay couples the right to
buy joint health’ insurance and visit a
partner in the hospital, but left them
without, many federal rights.
Now, a plurality of Oregonians support
same-sex marriage, according to a Public
Policy Polling announced last month. The
poll found that 43% of voters favor gay
marriage, 33% favor civil unions and 22%
oppose all recognition.
In the wake of major victories for what
many say is the “civic-rights battle of our
time,” Street Roots talked w iththe
executive director of the largest nonprofit
gay rights organisation in Oregon about the
potential for same-sex marriage in Oregon,
its victory in New York, and the
collaborations and small victories that keep
her going.
"We're working really hard to bring m arriage
equality to a vote in 2 0 1 2 . But we're not
where we need to be yet. We need more
public education, more community
engagement and more grassroots advocacy. "
Stacy Brownhill: First of all,
congratulations on same-sex marriage’s
victory in New York, and the new Gallup *
poll that indicates that a majority of
Americans now support same-sex marriage.
Those must have been huge victories for
Basic Rights Oregon (BRO).
Je an a Frazzini: Both the victory in New
York and the Gallup poll have demonstrated
huge support for freedom to marry. The
Gallup poll is actually the third national poll
in the last two years showing support for
marriage equality. So that’s really exciting
and shows there’s momentum around this
issue.
New York is unique because it’s the first
state where a Republican-majority legislative
body has approved a marriage equality bill.
Other legislatures have successfully passed
similar bills, but the fact that one of New
York’s houses was controlled by Republicans
and still the bill passed, is exciting.
Jeana Frazzini with Basic Rights Oregon.
The breakdown on party lines is starting
to fall apart The more LGBT families who
share their stories, the more this becomes
an issue pf humanity, not politics.
S.B.: How far away is Oregon from
achieving marriage equality? Is BRO
campaigning for 2012?
J.F.: I think we’re very close. The
challenge for us is we’re one of the only
states across the country that has to pass a
bill by public vote. Courts refused to take up
our challenge against Measure 36 that
passed in 2004.
We’re working really hard to bring
marriage equality to a vote in' 2012. But
we’re not where we need to be yet.
We need more public education, more
community engagement and more
grassroots advocacy. Folks are lending their
time and talent, but it also requires
significant financial resources. We’ll know
more this fall when we’ll run another round
of ads, organize on the ground, and assess if
the pieces are in place, 9
We’ve never done a proactive measure
before; we’ve always been on the defensive.
So if we bring this to a vote, we want to win.
S.B.: LGBT folks can be targets, of
multiple discriminations, and hate crimes
are still directed against Oregonians for a
host of reasons, race and sexual orientation
being the big ones. Who are your partners
in the fight for equality?
J.F.: We have amazing community
partnerships. At times, it’s unbelievable the
tremendous spirit of collaboration. And
we’ve worked hard to make that the case.
Western States Center has done a terrific
job bringing racial justice to the center of
our work. They’ve helped BRO do
“Dismantling Racism” trainings, which teach
Portland’s primarily white LGBT population
PH O TO BY R O SEM A R Y RAG USA
how racism exists in our
community. They also run a
program called “Uniting Communities” that
works with organizations serving people of
color to bring LGBT services into their
framework. All of that creates better
collaboration for us all to support each
other.
In terms of recent hate crimes, we
worked with a coalition of forty different
organizations in 2009 to create anti-bullying
legislation in Oregon schools. Kids are
targeted for bullying based on a lot of
different factors, including perceived sexual
origination, race and religious orientation.
We’re working with Q-Center to expand
our partnership and get involved in the
Q-Patrol, hitting thestreets and training
volunteers to identify trouble.
S.B.: What else is on the horizon for
BRO?
J.F.: The marriage campaign is the most
visible aspect of our work, but we have
other'priority areas, including racial justice
and alliance-building work.
We have a leadership team of LGBT folks
of color who have created an education
campaign called “Our Families.” The
campaign shares the stories of LGBT
families of color and their unique challenges
aiid triumphs. We’ll also be placing Spanish
radio ads about marriage equality around
Oregon to help increase dialogue among
Latinos.
Finally, we had a tremendous victory with
the City of Portland in getting full healthcare
for city employees who are transgender.
We’re working with other businesses and
counties in Oregon to take this step
forward. A lot of people don’t know that
health insurance policies specifically
exclude service based on gender identify,
despite paying for counseling and hormone
therapies for people who are not
transgender.