Oregonian Urges No Vote
Poll shows race winnable!!
Good News From the No on Constitutional Amendment 36 campaign!
Today, the Oregonian endorsed a "No" vote on Constitutional Amendment 36, calling the effort to change our Constitution "sad, mean-spirited and just plain wrong." Full text of the editorial is below.
Also today, a poll was released by The Oregonian and KATU News that reflects what we've known all along - - this is a very close race. Despite the fact that the poll was conducted while the Yes side had TV ads up for three weeks and while we had only radio ads up, the poll shows 51% Yes voters, 40% No voters and 9% undecided.
This is great news and shows WE CAN WIN, because both our polling and our experience at the door proves that most undecided voters and many Yes voters move our way as they hear more about Constitutional Amendment 36. Over the next 4 1/2 weeks, as we talk to persuadable voters at their doors, on the phone and in the mail - as well as air several compelling TV ads - this race will move our way!
But make no mistake, this will be a close race. Every dollar contributed, every hour volunteered and every voter spoken to can make a difference in the outcome of this race.
Find out how you can help and read more endorsements at www.NoOn36.
Oregonian Endorsement is below. Please write the Oregonian to show your support for the endorsement.
Don't scar Oregon Constitution
A vote for Measure 36 sends gays, lesbians, their parents and children the message that they are lesser Oregonians
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Last March, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners could have moved slowly, democratically, at the speed of enlightenment.
They could have opened the doors to full debate on gay marriage even as they showed their fidelity to the Oregon Constitution. They could have trusted that its fierce absolutes -- its equal protections for gays and lesbians -- would clinch their case in the conscience of Oregonians.
Instead the commissioners quashed dissent. They hastened to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. In blowing off the democratic process, the commissioners did terrible damage. They sowed the wind. And our state is now reaping the whirlwind, Measure 36.
Although its effects are not entirely clear, it could erode or diminish protections for gays and lesbians.
This measure would add a kind of asterisk to the Oregon Constitution: Oh, by the way. Marriage is only for one man and one woman. That may sound innocuous, but in the evolution toward equality, this amendment is an attempt to push our state backward, and smother the future position of an Oregon minority.
That's disturbing, no matter what your opinion is of gays marrying.
We have argued that equal protection for gays and lesbians may not require marriage, and that civil unions could provide equal protections. But we think the debate in Oregon is far from over.
It shouldn't stop here.
It's in the nature of progress that we don't always know where it will take us. Over the past decade, public opinion has evolved rapidly on gay rights. Already, younger Americans are far more supportive than older ones are.
Measure 36 wouldn't just lock down the debate as of this moment. It's an attempt to lock it down for years, and even generations. That's sad, mean-spirited and just plain wrong.
It simply isn't true that marriage has been unchanged for millennia. Marriage has evolved with fuller equality for women, including the right of wives to own property and the right for both spouses to divorce.
Whether Measure 36 would actually scale back equal protections for gays and lesbians or have largely symbolic effects, we don't know. But even the symbolic effects are harmful ones.
Many gays and lesbians in our state already feel excluded. The passage of Measure 36 would make that official.
It would declare that gays and lesbians and their families are secondary, and their protections are inferior. That takes us in the wrong direction.
If you could watch the Oregon Constitution evolve, in a time-lapsed photograph, you would see an ever-expanding definition of who is "us." Who is considered fully human? Who is entitled to vote, serve in the militia, run for office, claim the rights of a citizen?
In 1857, framers of the Oregon Constitution took it largely for granted that only white males would have those privileges. Had you had eavesdropped on them, in fact, you would have heard them arguing about whether "white" was white enough. Many slaves and ex-slaves were virtually white.
The framers' prejudices are sprinkled throughout that first Constitution, as in: "No Negro, Chinaman or Mulatto shall have the right of suffrage." So we're not about to argue that the document is pristine, and that's it never been defaced before. It's had plenty of ugly blotches. Surely, in 2004, we know enough to avoid another one.
Measure 36 might not succeed in ratcheting down the solemn protections that the Oregon Constitution affords, but it's an attempt to keep gays and lesbians in their place -- in the shadows of our communities.
We think their place is in Oregon, side by side with the rest of us, and fully protected by the Oregon Constitution. Vote "No" on Measure 36.