From: LincolnRep@aol.com
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 01:11:19 EDT
Subject: Oregon DoMA dies

   A month or so ago, the Oregon House of Representatives passed a proposed 
referendum that would have inserted the man/woman definition of marriage in 
the Oregon Constitution's Bill of Rights.  That bill initially failed to gain 
enough votes to be passed by the Republican-controlled Oregon Senate, which 
referred it to a committee for amendments that would simply authorize the 
Legislature to define marriage.  That was done and a very mild product 
resulted.
   Friday evening, July 23, 1999, after an intensive lobbying effort by Basic 
Rights Oregon (one of the largest statewide gay/lesbian civil rights 
organizations in the country), Log Cabin Republicans/Oregon, PFLAG, plus paid 
lobbyists, plus the ACLU, the full Senate defeated the mild amendment 17:13 
with four Republicans voting "no."  
   This is a major victory for our side and a huge defeat for the 
behind-the-scenes proponents.  The latter include the Christian Coalition, 
whose State-wide director was lobbying all day today, and various other 
theocrat groups.  
   Some of the most disgusting arm-twisting went on behind the scenes.  Among 
these were threats from the Republican Speaker of the House to hold the 
legislature open and keep vital bills from passing when everyone wanted to 
adjourn.  She did manage to silence one of our Republican allies in the 
Senate by threatening not to pass a beneficial bill that he desparately 
wanted for the good of the whole state.
   This whole fight spotlights the deep split within the Republican party 
between those who would stand on the principles of the law and our 
Constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection and those who 
stand on their mistaken religious principles in defiance of the law.  
   The main, major, and only reason for my continuation in the Republican 
party and continued support of Log Cabin Republicans as the vanguard of the 
gay Republican movement is the belief that we can overcome those who stand on 
their outlaw principles.  I am grateful that today a thin, very thin, line 
held against the outlaws in our party!
Lee Coleman
Log Cabin Republicans/Oregon