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ACLU, gay couples sue to uphold same-sex marriage in Oregon By ANDREW KRAMER, AP - kgw.com/News from the Web, March 25, 2004 Two lesbian police officers, a 65-year-old law professor at the University of Oregon and two medical doctors were among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Wednesday intended to send Oregon's legal dispute over gay marriage on a fast track to the state Supreme Court. The nine gay and lesbian couples argued the state is violating their rights under the Oregon Constitution by not registering their marriages with the Office of Vital Statistics. The national chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has taken the case. Opponents of gay marriage filed to oppose the lawsuit along with state attorneys. The lawsuit consolidates several other legal challenges to gay marriage brought by conservative leaders and Christian pastors, after Multnomah County commissioners decided three weeks ago to grant the licenses. Opponents and supporters of gay marriage alike agreed that the ACLU's case would most directly address the constitutional issues raised by gay marriage. "We ask what about these relationships is not a marriage? We challenge anyone to show us, beyond simple prejudice, a meaningful difference" between the plaintiffs and heterosexual couples, said Roey Thorpe, director of Basic Rights Oregon. The gay-rights group has been most responsible for pressing the issue to the forefront in Oregon, and has cooperated with the ACLU in the lawsuit. "We believe the time has come when these loving couples will be treated as equals under Oregon law," Thorpe said. The 65-page filing included complaints by gay couples who say they face a thicket of legal and social complications because they cannot legally get married. Portland Police officers Donna Potter and Pamela Moen said they worry that if one of them dies in the line of duty, the other would not be eligible for a $25,000 death payment and other benefits. At a news conference announcing the suit, the couples, some holding babies, stood on a stage and discussed the meaning of marriage in their lives. "I did not feel that after 13 years and two kids, I could feel a deeper love and commitment," but a marriage ceremony earlier this month did indeed deepen her relationship, Potter said. Kevin Neely, spokesman for Attorney General Hardy Myers, said the state will file its response by April 5, and a decision by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden is expected by the end of that month under an expedited process agreed to by both opponents and supporters of gay marriage. That will set the stage for an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court. It is unclear when the high court would hear or rule on the case. Kristian Roggendorf, an attorney for the Defense of Marriage Coalition, a group opposed to gay marriage, said he filed to intervene in the case Wednesday and that the motion was granted. "We'll be party in this case all the way up to the Supreme Court," he said. "That court will find that what Multnomah County did was both illegal and unwise. It will find that marriage is constitutional as defined as being between a man and a woman." The case is expected to resolve the issue for Multnomah County and Oregon's 35 other county governments, which had been left largely to themselves in deciding whether to issue the licenses until this week, when Myers indicated he would sue Benton County over a plan to issue gay marriage licenses there. Earlier Wednesday, the Oregon Supreme Court rejected an effort by two national religious groups to bring the case directly to the high court. That means the ACLU's case in Multnomah County is the most likely to reach the Supreme Court.
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