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  WINDY CITY TIMES

Oregon Continues to Lead on Marriage
by Bob Roehr
2004-03-24

This article shared 2875 times since Wed Mar 24, 2004
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The torrid pace of news on gay marriage slackened considerably over the last week and the subject fell from the front pages of most newspapers.

What continues is a flurry of lower level activities that a year ago might have garnered banner headlines on their own but now fails to make that test of newsworthiness. It is a sign of how quickly the nation is adjusting to the notion of same-sex marriage.

Portland Oregon continues to be marriage central as Multnomah County reaffirmed its commitment to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Supporters and opponents have agreed to a shared legal strategy that will move the central question—whether one can deny those licenses to gay couples under the Oregon Constitution—before the state Supreme Court as quickly as possible.

Three gay couples will file a lawsuit against Multnomah County on March 24 and the conservative Defense of Marriage Coalition will intervene, allowing all of the principle players a role in the legal proceedings. The parties have agreed to drop all other pending lawsuits in the County.

The script calls for Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden to hold a hearing on the case in mid-April and issue his decision by April 23. All parties envision an expedited appeals process that may even bypass an intermediary court and go directly to the Oregon Supreme Court.

Benton County, the home of Oregon State University, has announced that it too will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on March 24. County commissioners voted to do so after reading an advisory opinion on the subject issued by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers. Opponents are suing to stop them.

The Defense of Marriage Coalition is continuing its petition efforts to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Meanwhile, the radical right has targeted an openly gay member of the Oregon Supreme Court in a May 18 primary. It is running one of their own against him for a seat on the seven-member Court.

Justice Rives Kistler received his law degree at Georgetown University and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell. He later joined a private law practice in Portland and served as an assistant attorney general for the state. He is highly thought of within the legal community.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera petitioned the California Supreme Court on March 18 to allow that city to continue to issue marriage licenses to gay couples while the issue works its way through the judicial system.

He also urged the Court not to resolve the lesser issue of whether Mayor Gavin Newsom has the authority to issue those licenses until after it resolves the broader question of whether denial of marriage licenses to gay couples is a violation of the California Constitution.

In New York, two Unitarian Universalist ministers who married 13 gay couples in the upstate town of New Paltz were charged with violating the law, on March 15.

That prompted a rabbi and Episcopal minister to marry three gay couples on the steps of New York City Hall on March 18, in protest of the citations and of the policy. More than two dozen other clergymen from a handful of differing faiths joined them.

'The President tried to steal the pulpit by taking a stance on what religious leaders can and cannot do,' Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen told The New York Times. 'Last I checked he is not a religious leader, and I will conduct marriages and other religious rites according to my faith, not what he tells me to do.'

In Washington, D.C., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has scheduled another hearing on a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to a man and a woman. The March 23 hearing will begin to look at language for that amendment. It is likely to include the version that has been introduced in both houses of Congress and perhaps a handful of alternatives that have been floating around Capitol Hill.

And the front page will heat up when the Massachusetts legislature again grapples with a constitutional amendment when they next meet to reconsider the issue on March 29.


This article shared 2875 times since Wed Mar 24, 2004
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