I haven’t seen anything on any websites I can link to yet, but NWCN (Northwest Cable News - a conglomerate of the NBC stations in the NW) has announced and apparently had confirmed that begginning tommorow the county will begin to issue marriage liscenses to homosexuals that wish to get married! They did have one lawyer on that had reviewed the Oregon constitution and found nothing in it which specifies marriage as between a man and woman.
I think this is the beggining. Vermont, SF, Mass, the city north of NY… now a county in OR. I think it’s only a matter of time untill gays are finally awarded the same rights as everyone else in regards to marriage…
While I agree in principle, I am deathly afraid of a nasty, nasty backlash. Dubya’s gonna have a field day pinning all this crap on Kerry. I’m happy in the short term, but I fear the potential for a long term net negative, including a second term for the Smirkmeister. But then, “just be patient” is such a patronizing way of telling civil-rights activists to calm down; why be patient when the injustice is so glaring? I’m torn, I tells ya, torn badly.
I can understand some people being upset by this just for the fact that it may do more harm in the long run (for SSM) than good, but I don’t think so. I really think that the more people who see it, hear about it, and see that Portland, or VT, or wherever hasn’t turned into some city where gays molest you on the street will be a good thing. I’m actually pretty surprised it tool this long here. OR is a pretty liberal state and also it seems to me, a very litiguos one…
I’m so proud of my state!!! (But disappointed I didn’t get to post this first. Heh.)
Oregon has always marched to a slightly different drummer, and this is just one more example of that. I’m actually amazed this happened. I haven’t seen much debate about it locally, but I don’t actually live in Multnomah County. I’m curious of the legality of the whole situation. Apparently Oregon law doesn’t explicitly say that marriage must be between a man and a woman. A “news conference” is scheduled for tomorrow morning, to explain the situation a bit better. Here’s another article. The wording does seem to indicate they will begin issuing marriage licenses, but apparently it’s still up in the air a bit.
Honestly, I see so much bigotry, day after day, it really makes me happy to see this. I didn’t really believe that those crazy (in a good way!) folks in SF would succeed, but now it’s all happening a lot closer to home. It all seems more real, like maybe we really can overcome bigotry and ignorance and hatred.
It’s apparently very beautiful down there. I go to Reed College and have heard of at least a few students bringing coffee and donuts to the waiting couples, as well as a few impromptu proposals. I’d go down there myself and throw flower petals or something, but am currently death on a stick from this nasty cold, so I think I will not spoil the honeymoons by spreading my pestilence. This is very exciting, though.
Betty Roberts? Holy frickin’ hey! I knew her back when she first started running for office, her main campaign ad was a sign on the roof of her car. Stood out at the old high school parking lot. What a blast from the past.
Ha! This is the first place I went to as I heard the news. I was watching the news and they just had a bunch of callers on with their opinions of the decision, and a “Breaking News” thing on top! They wouldn’t say what was going on though!!!
When they finally did, I ran up here to my comp and posted quick!