|
The New York Times
U.S.
Domestic Partnerships
Allowed in Oregon
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, February 2, 2008
PORTLAND, Feb.1 -- A state law
allowing gay couples to register as domestic partners belatedly took effect
Friday after a federal judge ruled the state's process of disqualifying petition
signatures was consistent enough to be valid.
The state quickly announced that the domestic partnership applications were
available online, and jubilant gay-rights activists predicted hundreds of
couples would line up on Monday morning at county offices to register.
''We're a family. We've been waiting for this for a long time,'' said a
beaming Cathy Kravitz of Portland. She said she and her partner of 21
years will be among those registering on Monday.
The law passed by the 2007 Legislature was to take effect when the new year
started, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman suspended it to hear testimony
about a petition drive that sought to put the law before voters.
The petitions fell 96 signatures short of the 55,179 needed to refer the law to
the November 2008 ballot. The petitioners claim that county clerks
rejected signatures improperly.
The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that advocates for Christian
legal issues, said it would appeal Mosman's ruling.
Fund lawyer Austin Nimocks had argued that a signature on a petition should have
the same weight as a signature on a ballot, and that elections officials should
have made more of an effort to contact voters whose signatures were
disqualified.
But Mosman said signatures on a petition amounted to, ''a call for an election,
not a substitution for an election.''
Testimony at the hearing turned on whether Oregon counties had a ''common
standard'' to evaluate whether a voter's signature on a petition was valid.
Mosman said the state had supplied enough evidence -- if just barely -- that a
common standard existed in all 36 counties.
Petitioners plan to start another drive to put the domestic partnership law to a
referendum.
''We want to vote -- we think that our signatures mean something and it was an
arbitrary move by the secretary of state's office,'' said Carolyn Wendell, who
was a chief petitioner in the lawsuit.
Gay rights groups said they were prepared to continue fighting, both in court
and on the ballot.
''The (Alliance Defense Fund) is an out-of-state group that could care less
about the individual rights of folks here in Oregon,'' said Jeana Frazzini,
executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. ''They have certainly
demonstrated that through the harm they have caused to same sex couples across
this state because of the delay they've faced for the past month.''
Gay couples who register as domestic partners will be able to file joint state
tax returns, inherit each other's property and make medical choices on each
other's behalf, along with a host of other state benefits given to married
Oregonians.
In 2004, about 3,000 same-sex couples were granted marriage licenses in
Multnomah County, the largest county in Oregon. But Oregon voters later
approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage, and the state Supreme Court
nullified the marriage licenses.
Oregon becomes the ninth state to approve spousal rights in some form for gay
couples, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine,
California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows
gay couples to marry.
|
