March 14, 2004
(Updated) The Night Before The Next Stage
Another Same-Sex News Collection
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Tomorrow at noon, Multnomah County will announce what it tends to do, or not do, as a result of Attorney General Hardy Myers releasing his opinion, and Myers and Governor Ted Kulongski urging the County to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses until the courts settle the inevitable constitutional conflict.
Although there are a few items from other sources, most of what's available today of course is from The Sunday Oregonian, starting with a report on the process the Attorney General's office went through to generate their legal opinion.
Also in the paper is a brief item on yesterday's so-called "prayer rally" against same-sex marriage, held in Pioneer Courthouse Square, where recall-happy John Belgarde pimped his signature sheets, and one speaker said, "If you allow homosexuals to marry, you will never be able to repeal laws allowing them to adopt children."
And one of today's editorials suggests following a three-principle outline, based upon the remarks of the Attorney General and Governor, of where to go now: No discrimination; separate church and state; and no vigilante counties.
Meanwhile, today's letters to the editor includes one we can't find online, but challenges those who oppose same-sex marriage based upon their views of Christianity: "Is the spiritual bond of Christian marriage so weak now that a secular law can injure this tremendously?"
Turning to local weblogs, Jack Bogdanski returns to the process question. Jack says that some of us are arguing from an "ends justify the means" perspective when we refer to the "process distraction." This doesn't happen to be what we ourselves are arguing (we believe the process was legitimate both legally and politically, and that right means are used to achieve right ends), but click through and read his latest post on this matter anyway.
Update
One response to the Attorney General's opinion which we missed was the statement of Commissioner Lisa Naito, which is reproduced on BRO's news page. We just want to point out this bit:
I respect Attorney General Hardy Myers and his opinion. However, quoting our Governor, 'It's just another lawyer talking.'
We think we might have heard that before.
Comments (1)
Bob R. on 14 Mar 2004
One move Diane Linn could make, if she wants to play some political football, is to call the bluff of the "public process" folks and state that the county will now hold public hearings. Lots of public hearings. Weeks and months of hearings... To decide whether or not they should stop issuing licenses. In the meantime, the licenses would continue to be issued.
- Bob