Religious Left

Protest in Silverton

by Bryan Boyd The Portland Mercury As Portland's gay pride festivities loom on the horizon, and a large portion of our community plans to come together—be it only for a few days—what about Oregon's anti-gay crowd? What are their plans for Pride? After many attempts to talk to those in charge of recent efforts to deny essential humanity to Oregon's GLBT folks, no calls were returned. Maybe the anti-gay squad will make a surprise appearance on the Fantasy Video float? Though my calls and emails to the crazies may have gone unreturned—and those folks may be spending the day at church listening to sermons about the gays destroying civilization, and celebrating exaggerated memoirs from self-loathing so-called ex-gays—we can take comfort in a reminder from Restore America's David Crowe, sent out over his always-good-for-a-laugh email list. He says we gays are in good company with the "Oregon House controlled by Democrats who sold out to the sodomite community [and] embra...

By a vote of 168-10, Lane County’s largest Methodist church has joined the ranks of “reconciling” congregations that have declared themselves open to all people regardless of sexual orientation. First United Methodist Church in downtown Eugene is the ninth Methodist congregation in Oregon — and the third in Lane County — to join the movement. Not coincidentally, the church’s vote on Sunday comes a week before United Methodists from across the country will gather for the denomination’s once-every-four-years General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. “The idea that anybody could be denied membership because of their homo­sexuality just strikes me as unjust,” Morray said. “Our ultimate goal is the removal of discriminatory language.” The local church stand is at odds with United Methodist Church law, which identifies homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching.” First United — a congregation of 600 known for its social justice outreach and distinctive church building — joins n...

As you are probably aware, Oregon religious right groups submitted petitions in attempt to repeal two referrendums. Both of them failed to have a sufficient number of valid signatures. The new laws will go into effect in January. http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/10/second_antigay_petition_fails.php

Today, the Secretary of State announced that at least one of the petitions did not gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. The petition, which would force a referendum on legalizing domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, fell just 116 signatures short of the required 55,179. "This is a proud day for Oregon," Basic Rights Oregon executive director John Hummel said in response to the news. "In refusing to sign these petitions, Oregonians showed that they aren't interested in rolling back our anti-discrimination laws." Hummel said the failure of anti-gay groups to meet a very low signature threshold is clear evidence that the groups are out of step with Oregon values. No word yet on Referendum #304, which would put another recently passed law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation on next year's ballot.

As we know Oregon anti-gay activist were recently on a petition drive and claimed to turn in 63,000 signatures. The Oregon Secretary of State's office says there are 60,531 valid signatures. That doesn’t mean they’ve made the ballot, though. “Now they go to the counties for statistical sampling,” explains the secretary of state’s Mary Conley. A record shattering 91.2 percent of those signatures would have to be valid in order for the issue to go to next fall’s ballot. The average validity rate is usually in the 70 percent range, so it's not looking good for those folks. They need 55,179 valid signatures.

In a statement , Basic Rights Oregon announced that a complaint has been filed with the Oregon Secretary of State's office against groups opposing two recently passed gay rights laws . The complaint specifically accuses two groups of unlawfully soliciting donations: According to the complaint, an organization called "Concerned Oregonians" and another group are misleading voters by claiming that contributions to their efforts are eligible for a "dollar-for-dollar" political tax credit of up to $100. In fact, only contributions made to legitimate ballot measure and candidate campaigns are eligible for Oregon's Political Tax Credit. According to the complaint, Concerned Oregonians, which has been soliciting support and donations from individuals and churches, is not a political action committee at all. The other group is not a campaign or ballot measure committee and donations to its efforts are not eligible for the credit. The deception doesn't end there: ...

Regarding the anti-gay movement in Oregon to petition new Gay rights laws the Portland Mercury (newspaper) dispatched writers to check out five Portland-area evangelical churches—churches whose pastors helped organize the "Pastors and Religious Leaders Day at the Capitol" against these same gay rights bills on April 5—to see how the campaign is going. Would hundreds of Christians be lined up to sign against equality, or is the campaign truly faltering? http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=400391&category=34029