February 07, 2008
Oregon rolls out domestic partnerships
Good news from the pacific northwest...
A state law allowing Oregon's same-sex couples to register as domestic partners belatedly took effect after a federal judge ruled the state's process of disqualifying petition signatures was consistent enough to be valid.The state quickly announced Friday that the domestic partnership applications were available online, and jubilant gay rights activists predicted hundreds of couples would line up on Monday morning at county offices to register.
"We're a family. We've been waiting for this for a long time," said a beaming Cathy Kravitz of Portland. She said she and her partner of 21 years will be among those registering Monday.
The law passed by the 2007 Legislature was to take effect when the new year started, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman suspended it to hear testimony about a petition drive that sought to put the law before voters.
The petitions fell 96 signatures short of the 55,179 needed to refer the law to the November 2008 ballot. The petitioners claim that county clerks rejected signatures improperly.
The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that advocates for Christian legal issues, said it would appeal Mosman's ruling.
The fight, of course, continues. Texas will join the rest of the nation in offering this sometime in 2690.
Posted by mcblogger at February 7, 2008 09:06 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcblogger.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/3070
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
