"So today, in awe of this great city built by those who came before us, and driven by the desire to construct an even greater city we can build together, it is with great humility and respect that I ask you to support my campaign to serve you as the next Mayor of Portland, Oregon." – SAM ADAMS, OCT 3, 2007

Visit his site for more information: www.samforpdx.com.

Labels: 2008 elections, portland, sam adams

Anti-equality activists in Wasco County yesterday failed to submit signatures to county officials in their effort to recall Wasco Judge Dan Erickson and Commissioner Sherry Holliday.

Erickson and Holliday, who are both Republicans, were targeted for their support of a Wasco County ordinance passed earlier this year that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

This marks a major win for Oregon - especially as Wasco County is quite rural. Thank you Wasco County residents!

At this moment, 13 counties or cities have anti-discrimination ordinances leaving a patchwork of different laws. On January 1, 2008, Oregon's statewide anti-discrimination law will go into effect - banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Labels: anti-discrimination, oregon

This is not a test and not a joke. Could it possibly be true that David Crowe, head of Restore America - the extremist anti-gay group who was attempting to put Oregon's new Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws on the Novemeber 2008 ballot - has moved to Tennessee?

That's what we just heard from always reliable blogger The One True B!X. A post on his blog 'Furious Nads' from Oct. 20 says:

Anyone have any idea why David Crowe of the Oregon-based Restore America's Bigotry is described by the press as being from Tennessee?

And just two days ago on Oct. 22 he has a new post stating something very surprising:

Remember when I wondered why the press was referring to David Crowe of Restore America's Bigotry as being of Tennessee? I asked The New York Times, and here's why: "They just moved from Oregon to Tennessee."

Wow. They told the NY Times that they have moved to Tennessee. Could it be possible that they've realized that Oregon isn't a place where their sort of fringe extremism would be tolerated so they have to go to a place like Tennessee?

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum, restore america

David Crowe of the defunked and illegal 'political action committee' called Concerned Oregonians is crying fowl weeks after his failed referendum attempt.

From OregonLive today:

Opponents of the domestic partnership bill that passed the Legislature are still trying to get the law referred to the ballot, even though the secretary of state's office ruled earlier this month that they fell 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 required by law.

The Medford Mail Tribune reports that opponents of the law - which allows same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships that include many of the legal protections given to married couples - are pressuring the Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett to count several signatures she had earlier invalidated.

Because the secretary of state validates petitions by using just a sample of the signatures, opponents figure they can make up their deficit by persuading the clerk to allow just six of the invalidated signatures to be counted. The group seeking the referendum, Concerned Oregonians, has rounded up eight people who say they signed the petition but had their signatures unfairly invalidated.

At this point, Beckett gives no indication she will change her mind. But if nothing else, it's a sign of how every angle of Oregon's initiative and referendum process is coming under intense scrutiny and pressure.

Give up already. When gay and lesbian Oregonians lost Constitutional Amendment 36 in 2004, sure we cried and were deeply upset - upset for very good reasons. Oregon's Constitution was scarred that fateful day. It was no longer the Constitution of the people, it was the Constitution for some.

Now, after your blatant failure to put the 26th and 27th (I think) anti-gay measure on the ballot (more than any other state in the nation) you are crying fowl. Take your defeat as just that. Oregonians simply aren't into your politics of bigotry and fear. That was so 2004.

You claim that Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law "violates the intent of Oregon voters who in 2004 adopted a constitutional ban on gay marriage." So why go through all these months of collecting tens of thousands of signatures?

If it was violating Measure 36 then you would file a lawsuit. If in fact it did violate Measure 36, you would win. I will give you some credit here though. Deep down you know that Domestic Partnerships in no way violate Measure 36--nor the "spirit of Measure 36". Hence why you and your fellow self-righteous bigots have failed to do so.

You also fail to notice that the proponents of Measure 36 have stepped back and are not participating in the referendum attempt. They even know that Domestic Partnerships are a far cry from marriage.

"The spirit of Measure 36"... what exactly is that? The way I see it the spirit of Measure 36 is damn evil by not only permanently inscribing blatant discrimination in Oregon's most sacred document, by locking Oregon families out of vital rights, protections and responsibilities.

I think families are the backbone of society, whereas you could not be further away from this belief. Selectively shutting out couples, especially with children from protecting one another is just plain wrong. As one of your cohorts said in a voter guide statement: "Speaking of families, raising a successful and loving family in the '90's can be challenging".

Damn right--10 years later it's even harder.

Now you are also falsely claiming that:

"...the legislature's results fail to provide a sufficient religious exemption to protect churches and religious organizations from being forced to hire homosexual individuals, and further it leaves to "a court to decide what is or is not closely connected with the primary purposes of the church."

The pair of plans also would require school districts to teach homosexual, bisexuality and transgenderism in their classrooms, and the domestic partnership proposal itself, would create discrimination."

Must I again remind you that the proponents of Measure 36, the Oregon Family Council decided not to involve themselves in the referendum attempt. In fact they called the religious expemtion "iron clad."

Let it go. Oregonians just aren't that into you.

Labels: 2008 elections, anti gay, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, HB 2007, house bill 2007, oregon, referendum, SB 2, senate bill 2

The Boy Scouts of America's refusal to bend its rules to permit gay scouts will cost the organization's local chapter $200,000 a year if it wishes to keep its headquarters in a city-owned building on Logan Square.

Representatives of the Boy Scouts of America's Cradle of Liberty Council were notified that to remain in their 79-year-old landmark headquarters, they needed to pay the city a "fair market" rent, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday. Currently, the rent is $1 a year.

The city decided on the rent proposal after it was unable to reach a compromise with the local scout council in talks that have gone on since May.

"Once we know what the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scouts want to do, we'll probably want to weigh in with the city about how to proceed," Nix told the park commission.

Barring a resolution, the Cradle of Liberty Council - about 64,000 scouts in Philadelphia and parts of Delaware and Montgomery Counties - must vacate the property at 22d and Winter Streets after May 31.

"It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat," said Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesman for Cradle of Liberty Council, referring to the rent's impact on the scouts' chances of staying on the site.

Jubelirer said that $200,000 a year in rent "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp."

Nevertheless, Jubelirer said, scouting officials will ask City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. for details on the real estate appraisals that yielded the $200,000 rent figure.

Cradle of Liberty officials have said they could not renounce the scouts' long-established policy of not opening membership to atheists or openly gay people without running afoul of their charter with the scouts' National Council.

Keep reading the entire story over at Philly.com

Labels: anti gay, boy scouts, discrimination

I know we've posted this before, but today feels like a good day for a refresher. 'Let California Ring' is a massive public education project - educating Californians about why marriage equality matters. Their commercial is below. PS - They need to raise money to help get this on more airwaves. Have 10 bucks? Make a contribution. Link below the video.



Like the video? Want to see marriage equality in California? Go here to watch again and to donate - even if it is 10 bucks. It all helps.

Labels: california, marriage, video

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives' Education and Workforce Committee voted 21-27 to report H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act providing workplace protections on the basis of sexual orientation, out of committee and onto the floor of the House for a full vote expected next week. Four Republican amendments were offered in committee and were defeated.

To view the language and a description of each of the four amendments go to HRC's The Back Story.

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal

Now that Oregon's Domestic Partnership law will be going into effect on January 1st, Basic Rights Oregon is holding a "Know Your Rights" event tonight in Portland - with more to follow in other cities around the state.

From BRO:

Come celebrate, learn about your basic rights under the new laws, and help plan the upcoming effort to defend them.

Wednesday, October 17th, 6:30pm. Metropolitan Community Church of Portland (2400 NE Broadway). To RSVP, contact Aubrey@basicrights.org

The upcoming cities are:

Eugene:
Thursday, October 18th, 7:00pm. Whitaker Community School (21 North Grand). To RSVP, contact Becky@basicrights.org

Corvallis:
Thursday, October 25th, 6:30pm. Westminster House (101 NW 23rd St). To RSVP, contact Maceo@basicrights.org

Bend:
Monday, October 22nd, 6:30pm. Location TBA. For more info, contact Tammy@basicrights.org

Salem:
November 7th, 6:30pm. Willamette University Law School, Room 218. To RSVP, contact Maceo@basicrights.org

Pendleton:
Date TBA. For more info, contact Thomas@basicrights.org

Southern Oregon:
Date TBA. For more info, contact Thomas@basicrights.org

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon

Just days after Speaker Pelosi pledged to ensure to bring a trans-inclusive ENDA to the floor when their were sufficient votes, a 'gay-only' bill (House Resolution 3685) is moving in the House.

For a look at the national and statewide groups only supporting fully inclusive legislation and for a list of the 171 co-sponsors of this version of ENDA, visit www.unitedenda.com.

From the Washington Blade:

In a private meeting late Friday on Capitol Hill, congressional leaders told gay and transgender activists that they would move ahead with a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that lacks trans protections.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, attended the meeting and confirmed to the Blade that House leaders would first seek to pass the sexual orientation-only version of ENDA.

But in what Solmonese called an unprecedented commitment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to give the trans-inclusive version of ENDA a floor vote "the minute" enough votes are secured to pass it.

"Our strategy throughout has been to stay at the table and fight for the ultimate goal that we all share," Solmonese said. "Today, that strategy has proven to be successful."

Keisling, however, said her organization would stand among the groups that continue to oppose the amended version of ENDA introduced by gay Rep. Barney Frank.

She said that bill, known as House Resolution 3685, lacked the support of "a single LGBT or other civil rights organization," and was inferior to the trans-inclusive version, House Resolution 2015.

"I can't stress enough how we are focusing on passing 2015," she said. "The truth is we feel the strategy around 3685 is bad strategy. We think it's been handled badly, we think it is harmful and we oppose it."

The decision by House Democrats to move ahead with the sexual orientation-only ENDA comes two weeks after Pelosi delayed a vote on that measure to give gay and transgender rights groups more time to persuade House members to back a trans-inclusive ENDA.

Solmonese said it was determined at today's meeting that there were not sufficient votes to pass the trans-inclusive measure and House leaders would press ahead with the other version.

Read the entire article over at the Washington Blade.

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal

From the Oregon Secretary of State:

SALEM - Today the Elections Division of the Secretary of States Office announced verification of signatures for referendum petition #304 submitted for the November 4, 2008 General Election ballot has been completed.

The result of the signature verification is referendum #304 did not contain enough valid signatures to qualify to the ballot. Referendum #304 was filed on SB 2 passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature.

This proposed referendum required 55,179 valid signatures to gain ballot access. The referendum contains 53,875 valid signatures, or 90.15% of the 59,761 total unverified signatures submitted for verification.

Labels: anti-discrimination, oregon, referendum

The anti-gay referendum attempt on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law has FAILED. Supporters of discrimination could only muster up 53,875 valid signatures and they needed at least 55,179 to force the vote in November 2008.

This means that both Oregon's Domestic Partnership law (referendum failed earlier this week) and Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law will go into effect as planned on January 1, 2008.

Good job my fellow Oregonians. More to come as this story unfolds.

Labels: anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum

Today at 5pm was the deadline for Oregon's counties to complete their signature verification process. Tomorrow the Secretary of State will announce whether or not it has been certified.

Just a refresher on the situation.

This law, signed by Governor Kulongoski on May 9th of this year (video of signing), will ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodation.

A few fringe anti-gay groups organized together (and I use organized very lightly) in an attempt to put a referendum on the November 2008 ballot. They needed to collect 55,179 valid signatures to accomplish this. When they turned in their signatures with just about 30 minutes left to spare on their 3 month window, they claimed they had 63,000.

The Secretary of State's office then went through the first round of verification. In that round they look for any major irregularities or incorrect sheets and discard them. Following that process there were 59,761 signatures. From there samples went out to Oregon counties for further verification.

Now here we are. Just hours until we find out if anti-gay groups have succeeded in forcing a public vote on whether or not a person should be fired from their job SIMPLY for being gay - or even being denied housing JUST because they are gay or lesbian.

Our prediction at here at GRW is that they will fail based on the other referendum attempt on the Domestic Partnership law also passed n May 9th. After the first round of verification it had 60,531 that then went to the counties for further scrutiny. That one ended up failing by 116 signatures earlier this week.

We'll be watching this story closely tomorrow and will announce the outcome as soon as we hear.

Labels: 2008 elections, anti-discrimination, domestic partnership, oregon, referendum

This just in! Anti-gay groups attempting to put Oregon's Domestic Partnership law on the Nov. 2008 ballot just found out that they failed to meet the required 55,179 signatures necessary.

When they turned in their supposed "63,000" signatures on Oregon's Domestic Partnership law they came proud and confident. On initial count it turned out they actually only had 60,531. Petitions then went to counties where they were further scrutinized.

As Basic Rights Oregon said, "The fact that they were unable to meet even this extremely low signature threshold shows how out of step they are with Oregon values."

From the Secretary of State:

The result of the signature verification is referendum #303 did not contain enough valid signatures to qualify to the ballot. Referendum #303 was filed on HB 2007 passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature.

The proposed referendum required 55,179 valid signatures to gain ballot access. The referendum contains 55,063 valid signatures, or 90.97% of the 60,531 total unverified signatures submitted for verification.

The fight isn't quite over though in two big ways.

First, we are still awaiting word on their attempt for a referendum on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law. They also claimed 63,000 signatures on that one--though on initial count had a bit over 59,000. It looks to me like the attempt to force a public vote on Oregon's Anti-Discrimination law will also fail--but you never know.

Second, the extremist fringe groups have pledged a repeal if they failed the first time. They could announce their intent any day now and they would have until July 3, 2008 to collect over 82,000 signatures.

So to be clear - as of January 1, 2008 same-sex couples will be able to register as Domestic Partners!

Labels: domestic partnership, HB 2007, oregon

From OregonLive.com:

Adams, 44, served as chief aide to Mayor Vera Katz and was elected to the City Council in 2004. As accomplishments, he cited his work to lower business taxes and deal with dangerous intersections.

His candidacy was hardly a surprise. It has been expected ever since Mayor Tom Potter announced last month that he wouldn't seek re-election. Although a handful of unknown candidates have filed to run for mayor, no well-known figures have emerged to challenge Adams.

If elected, Adams would be the only openly gay mayor of a top-40 U.S. city, a fact he downplayed today.

"It might be historic, but I"m not running to be Portland's first gay mayor," he said.

Always loved Sam and he'll have my vote. Go Sam!

Labels: 2008 elections, oregon, portland, sam adams