The gyration our state went through last year on gay marriage -- now we have it, now we don't, now we've banned it -- has doubtless left some Oregonians a bit unsteady on their feet. Many will respond productively, though, by feeling their way to the political center.

But where, exactly, is that center? We suspect most Oregonians don't need a global positioning device to find it, since it's a familiar and quintessentially Oregon place. It's not hard to recognize because it's marked by good sense, compromise and fairness.

Sen. Ben Westlund, R-Tumalo, and Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany, believe they're standing right on it. They are co-sponsoring legislation to create civil unions, which would offer parallel protections to gay and lesbian couples.

A civil union is not identical to marriage. It's lesser in name and in stature, and that's why some gay people don't like the idea. That's also why it's called a compromise. Vermont pioneered this compromise, and Connecticut has since adopted it, too, granting gay and lesbian couples hundreds of legal rights automatically enjoyed by married couples. In substance, a civil union comes close to marriage.

But some who campaigned against same-sex marriage abhor this compromise. Apparently, it wasn't enough to eliminate the possibility of gays marrying. They now hope to crush the possibility of civil unions as well. And to do so, they're attacking Westlund, Morse and other Oregon moderates.

The alternative those on the attack are pushing would offer a handful of legal protections to two people who live together, whether friends or aging relatives, who would be known as "reciprocal beneficiaries." This in no way parallels marriage. Nor does it need to be legally dissolved, as marriage and civil unions do.

"Reciprocal beneficiaries" isn't even a half knot. There's no real tie.

If Oregon went in this direction, our state would be treating gay and lesbian couples as if they weren't really couples, as if they were, as Westlund describes it, "Aunt Tilly moving in with Aunt Milly." That's not who they are, though. And treating them that way would be demeaning, but then again that's the whole point -- to keep gay and lesbian Oregonians in the shadows and deny they're raising families here.

Creating civil unions, on the other hand, would admit that: Yes, gay and lesbians live among us. There are 9,000 such couples in Oregon, according to the last Census.

Yes, they fall in love. They buy houses, raise children, pay taxes, mow their grass, sit on the porch, live and die just like the rest of us. Families headed by gay or lesbian parents need the same legal protections other families need.

It's clear that opponents of same-sex marriage are tugging on the political center, and it's not surprising that they would tug -- and test their political clout -- in light of their political victory last fall. But they don't get to say where the center rests, any more than they get to pick out a new spot in the sky for the North Star. They can point, but Oregonians get to decide for themselves where the center is.

Apparently, even Oregonians who supported Measure 36 last fall, banning same-sex marriage, still want to treat gay and lesbian couples fairly. A recent poll by Washington, D.C.-based Lake Snell Perry Mermin/Decision Research, for the gay-rights lobbying group Basic Rights Oregon, found that 57 percent of Oregonians who voted for Measure 36 last fall -- because they're against gay marriage -- support civil unions.

"This is the middle," Westlund says. "For me, this is simply and profoundly the right thing to do."

As Morse says, it amounts to treating all Oregonians -- our gay colleagues, neighbors and friends -- "with dignity, respect and love."

Civil unions can become a reality in this session if Oregonians join together in the center.

From OregonLive.com

This entry was posted on Monday, May 30, 2005 at 9:04 PM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.