Domestic Partnerships Here we Come!

I went to this rally on Wednesday night. I stood in the rain with two thousand others because we got fucked. Domestic partnerships that should have gone into effect on January 1st were railroaded by a right wing extremist group.

See this is how it works. Our state legislature did a great thing. Earlier this year, they passed a law allowing gay and lesbian couples to register as domestic partners and obtain some of the rights married straight people get.

But the right-wingers couldn’t let it lie. So, they set out to gather signatures to put the issue on the ballot. Even though our elected officials passed a law, they were basically trying to repeal it by putting it up for popular vote. But, it turns out, most Oregonians believe in fairness. The losers couldn't even get enough signatures to put it up for vote. A handful of signatures were considered invalid and thrown out, which left them short of what they needed to qualify to be on the ballot.

Good news for us, right? Yes, until an out of state anti-gay group stepped in and challenged the signature validation process. So, a federal judge issued an injunction in late December. The commitment ceremonies that were to have taken place on January 1st were put off.

Stay with me here. Well today, that same judge ruled what we knew to be true all along. That they antis didn’t have enough signatures.


What this means is gay and lesbian couples all over the state of Oregon can head to their county court houses on Monday morning and file for domestic partnerships. Woo Hoo!

Unfortunately, I’ll be in Canada on Monday for Winter Pride, but when I get back, I’ll be heading to the courthouse with my wife (For the third time. We’ve already gone once for county domestic partnership, once for marriage and now for state wide domestic partnership.)

Here are some pictures from Wednesday’s rally. Like a bad journalist, I forgot my camera. So you have to put up with these cell phone images.