Oregon's Top Court Annuls 3, 000 Gay Marriages
By REUTERS, from the NYTimes on the Web, April 14, 2005
SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon's Supreme Court invalidated 3,000 marriage licenses on Thursday that had been issued to same-sex couples a year ago, saying they were unconstitutional.
The court said Multnomah County, which includes Portland and is Oregon's most populous county, had violated the state constitution's definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Support for gay weddings became a major issue during the 2004 presidential election campaign.
It touched off a national debate and prompted President Bush to call for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage during his successful bid for re-election.
Oregon's Supreme Court said in its ruling that the licenses issued in left-leaning Multnomah County
"were issued without authority and were void at the time they were issued."
In San Francisco, more than 4,000 gay couples were married during a month-long period a year ago before the courts brought them to a halt.
The California Supreme Court ultimately ruled those marriages invalid.
In November, Oregon, like 10 other states, rejected a change to the state constitution that would have permitted gay marriage.
Mary Li, whose marriage was the first such same-sex union in Multnomah County, said the decision filled her with
"great sadness and great disappointment."
Kelly Clark, a lawyer with the Defense of Marriage Coalition in Oregon who argued against same-sex marriage before the court, said the decision made clear that the
"marriage licenses that were issued were invalid from the beginning."
"Marriage by historic definition is best between a man and a woman and that's what creates the best foundational unit for
society," Clark said.
Like the rest of the country, Oregon remains deeply divided over the issue, and Thursday's ruling guarantees that the debate will intensify, said David Fidanque, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union in the state.
"Of course we are disappointed by today's ruling," Fidanque said, calling it a "speed bump on the road to
fairness."
Fidanque said the ACLU would file another lawsuit in the next few weeks on the grounds that the Oregon constitution requires civil unions.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan bill introduced in Oregon's Legislature backed by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, called for gay and lesbian couples to have marriage-like rights in the form of civil unions.
"We are calling on the legislature to do the right thing," Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon said,
"we are going to be making sure that the legislature hears the voices of people across the state on this
issue."
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