And let me tell you, the anti-gay woods are a very dark and scary place.

So we've all heard now that Oregon's Tennessee's Arizona's... Let's try this again. Ech hem.

So we've all heard that out-of-state (though parading around as Oregonians) anti-gay groups have called it quits on attempts to repeal Oregon's Domestic Partnership and Anti-Discrimination laws. Obviously great news as no one was looking forward to another six million dollar ballot measure campaign, the bad news great news is that they're bringing it back for a 2010 ballot initiative. And to be clear, I would never welcome a ballot measure campaign, but given that repeated polling indicates that the majority of Oregonian's honestly don't give a shit about committed gay and lesbian couples getting domestic partnered and also indicates that Oregon's overwhelmingly support Oregon's anti-discrimination law, bring it on.

Because if Oregonian's care little about repealing our Domestic Partnership law now, in 2010 these out-of-state religious zealots will be viewed as an even more hostile threat to our society than even now. So bring it.

The Actual Bad News
The one thing that could come to bite us in the ass very soon is the Lemons v. Bradbury case. Pro-equality Oregonians won the first battle, but the Arizona based 'Alliance Defense Fund' has appealed and it will now be heard by a three judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments will be heard in Portland on the morning of Tuesday, July 8. It's simply just another round in the legal battle, though if lost, could have serious consequences by putting at least of of these laws on the ballot in November 2008.

Lemons v. Bradbury was brought on by the 'Alliance Defense Fund' late last year after attempts to put the DP and AD laws on the ballot. They failed at collecting enough signatures after making their way through the verification process. For more on Lemons v. Bradbury visit Basic Rights Oregon's site here.

That's all for now folks.

Labels: anti-discrimination, basic rights oregon, domestic partnership, oregon

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:31 AM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.