County
accepts gay marriages
Multnomah
County becomes the first in Oregon to license same-sex unions, joining an
intense national debate
03/04/04
LAURA
GUNDERSON
and DAVID
AUSTIN
Multnomah
County will begin granting marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples today,
making it the first jurisdiction in Oregon to officially recognize that
same-sex couples can marry.
Commissioner
Serena Cruz said the county will make the announcement this morning.
"It's
based on an opinion released by the county attorney," Cruz said. " A
majority of the board supports changing the policy regarding the issuing of
marriage licenses."
She
declined to name the board members, but sources said Cruz acted along with
county Chairwoman Diane Linn and commissioners Lisa Naito and Maria Rojo de
Steffey.
Commissioner
Lonnie Roberts assailed the plan, saying that his fellow board members
"made a clandestine decision. That's not something that's healthy for government."
County
officials have been discussing the move for more than a week. Cruz refused to
release the legal opinion and declined to discuss any of its details. County
Attorney Agnes Sowle said she would not comment on the opinion Tuesday.
The
decision launches Multnomah County into the heart of a national debate about
same-sex marriage. The county's decision comes a month after the Massachusetts
Supreme Court said that state would have to allow gay marriages and San
Francisco's decision to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Several cities have followed San Francisco's lead.
At the
same time, President Bush has declared his support for amending the U.S.
Constitution to prohibit gay marriage, although a timeline has yet to emerge.
Oregon is
one of 10 states without a law banning same-sex marriage.
Debate
about gay rights has been raging in Oregon for nearly two decades, including
several highly divisive initiative elections. In 1998, gay-rights advocates in
the state won a significant legal victory in the Tanner decision. In that
decision, the state Court of Appeals ruled that the Oregon Constitution
requires the government to extend health benefits to the partners of gay
employees.
In a
footnote, the court said it was not ruling on the constitutionality of Oregon's
marriage law, which defines marriage "in terms of a civil contract entered
into by males and females who are thereby joined together as husband and
wife."
Legal
experts have long suspected that a challenge to Oregon's marriage law under
Tanner could succeed.
Unavailable
for comment
On
Tuesday, Linn was traveling to Oregon from Washington, D.C., with Naito and
couldn't be reached for comment. Her staff declined to discuss the policy
change.
Rojo de
Steffey did not return repeated phone calls Tuesday.
Dennis
Mulvihill, Washington County's chief lobbyist, said he was meeting with Linn in
Washington when she told him about the plan.
Mulvihill
contacted Dan Olsen, Washington County's counsel, who requested copies of
Multnomah County's legal analysis. But Olsen said he was told copies would not
be distributed until today.
Olsen
said he plans to review the analysis and share with his board whether he agrees
with Multnomah County's decision. Washington County's long-standing policy
allows marriage licenses to be issued only to couples of different genders,
Olsen said.
One
Multnomah County official confirmed that the county will begin granting the
licenses immediately. "They were keeping it pretty close and were afraid
of some kind of pre-emptive injunction," he said.
The
county sheriff's office also was alerted to be on hand at the county's
Southeast Portland headquarters for security.
Cruz said
the issue was bound to hit the county at some point.
"Multnomah
County -- like other communities across the state -- has been asking the
question of whether or not this is something we can do," she said.
"Personally, I support gay marriage, but this isn't a decision that I'm
going to talk about in detail right now."
Discussions
on the issue
According
to sources, Linn, Naito, Cruz and Rojo de Steffey spent the past week
discussing how to change county policy regarding same-sex marriages. They
didn't meet as an official body but held discussions on the issue.
Those
discussions didn't include Commissioner Roberts, who said he found out about
the decision when he heard a news brief on a local radio station.
"I
feel somewhat betrayed," Roberts said Tuesday night. "I have tried to
work with every one of those people. I thought we had a good working
relationship.
"Clandestine
decisions are not a good thing. That's what they did. I'm really upset by all
this."
Roberts
said he opposes gay marriages and thinks state government should decide the
issue. He said he would "obviously be outvoted on the board, but I still
think we should've had a discussion."
"We've
called marriage something that's between a man and a woman for centuries, and
we should keep it that way," he said. "Apparently, the ladies on the
board had another idea."
Laura
Gunderson: 503-2945958; lauragunderson@news.oregonian.com David Austin:
503-294-5910; davidaustin@news.oregonian.com