Efforts against civil unions disappointing
Tidings editorial
We feel more sadness than outrage at the news that several Oregon Republican legislators have filed initiative measures to repeal basic civil liberties granted to gay and lesbian couples in this state.
Sad because we know this means the state is in for yet another of the divisive and nasty campaigns that have torn us apart over the past decade and a half. Sad because we see no reason to overturn measures that harm no one while providing human dignities to tens of thousands of Oregonians. Sad because a Jackson County legislator, Sal Esquivel, is among the chief sponsors.
Esquivel, a Medford representative, is the chief petitioner on a measure that would overturn Oregon’s domestic partnership law, passed by the 2007 Legislature. He is joined as a sponsor by State Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, Sen. Gary George, R-Newberg, and Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, who are among the chief petitioners to repeal an anti-discrimination measure passed in the same session.
The domestic partnership law, which would allow civil unions, gives committed gay partners many of the same protections provided married couples by the state, such as the right to visit each other in the hospital. The anti-discrimination measure would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.
Why the Republican Party — or at least a number of its representatives — would want to deny those rights to citizens of this state is beyond us. Esquivel, for his part, says he supports the initiatives because he thinks the new laws should have been sent out to voters in the first place. That’s a convenient hole for him to hide in, but it’s a shallow one. Legislators are expressly authorized to create law; despite what some would lead you to think, there is nothing that requires anything short of a constitutional amendment to be approved by voters.
The real truth, for Esquivel and far too many in his party, is that they disapprove of gays and lesbians and fervently wish they could herd this entire group back into society’s closets. It is part of the curious disconnect among some Republicans, who say government should stay out of people’s lives, but then use that very government to press their own personal values on everyone else.
Gays, lesbians, people of all colors, all faiths and all walks of life are not going back into any closet. They are woven into our society, into America and into Oregon. To separate them from their basic rights is to tear at the very fabric that holds us and our country together.
Oregonians should make it clear that they do not support the anti-gay bigotry that lies at the heart of the Republicans’ initiatives. All Oregonians who value equality should stand together against efforts to label some of our citizens as less equal than others.
