Multnomah County not stopping gay marriages

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Again from The Oregonian

County commissioners uphold gay marriage

By WILLIAM McCALL
The Associated Press
3/15/2004, 2:55 p.m. PT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Gay couples can continue applying for marriage licenses in Oregon after a county board decided Monday that Portland will remain the only major city in the nation still offering to approve them.

Despite a plea to halt the practice from Gov. Ted Kulongoski and a nonbinding opinion by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers that gay marriage is illegal under current state law, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners announced it will keep issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

"Multnomah County will continue to issue marriage licenses to all couples, consistent with the Oregon Constitution, until such time as the Supreme Court of Oregon or the citizens of Oregon dictate another course of action," the county commissioners said in a written statement.

Couples waiting outside a county office building to apply for marriage licenses cheered, kissed and embraced after learning the commission's decision. Some came from as far away as Hawaii to get married.

"I'm so excited, I'm so happy," said John Bergmann, who traveled to Portland from Sacramento, Calif., to marry his partner Gary Hughes.

"Thank you Portland," yelled Gary Jeroy of Bloomfield, Mich., who was with his partner of 31 years, Tony Clemente.

"We're legal. We're getting married. My knees are shaking," Jeroy said.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that gay marriages are constitutional, but they will not be allowed before May 17 in that state. The Massachusetts legislature is considering a state constitutional amendment that would allow civil unions as an alternative but that could be years before it is approved.

The California Supreme Court also has taken up the issue, halting same-sex weddings in San Francisco for at least a few months while it decides whether they are legal.

Multnomah County Chairwoman Diane Linn announced March 3 that a legal review by the county and an independent law firm had concluded that rejecting marriage license applications from gays and lesbians violated the Oregon Constitution.

An immediate challenge was organized by the hastily formed Defense of Marriage Coalition led by Multnomah County Republican Party Chairman Tim Nashif and represented by Kelly Clark, an attorney and former Republican state lawmaker.

Clark called the decision Monday "awfully foolish and awfully arrogant."

Clark failed to win a temporary restraining order against Linn and the county board but he is pressing his challenge, hoping to win either a preliminary injunction or force the county to justify its decision to a judge.

Clark called the county's concern it could be sued by gay couples "utterly absurd."

"Any first-year law student can tell you that you can't get this issue into court as a lawsuit against the county unless it's a civil rights case, and a civil rights case needs to be about a clearly established constitutional right," Clark said.

"Gay marriage is not a clearly established constitutional right," Clark said.

But Myers, in the opinion he released last Friday, noted there was nothing in the Oregon Constitution to prevent gay marriage, either.

In fact, Myers predicted, the court likely would strike down any ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional despite state law that originally intended marriage to be a union of a man and a woman.

On Monday, his spokesman, Kevin Neely, said the attorney general would review the county decision to keep issuing marriage licenses but it was unclear whether the state could — or would — take any action.

"We're looking at legal remedies available to us and deciding what our office is going to do in response, if anything," Neely said.

The most important thing to Myers and to the governor is to get the case to the Oregon Supreme Court, he said.

"Again, our goal is to get a final resolution from the courts on this issue as expeditiously as possible," Neely said.

Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, which had originally asked the county to review state law, said she joined the attorney general and Clark in hopes the case will be resolved quickly. But she was happy about Monday's decision by the county board.

"On behalf of couples in loving relationships, who live in our state and our community, who work and pay taxes and whose children attend our schools, we thank Multnomah County today for doing the right thing," she said. "It's really an amazing thing."

David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Oregon, said Linn and the county had not only the authority but a duty to make sure state law does not conflict with the Oregon Constitution.

"All public officials have a duty to enforce the constitution," Fidanque said.

Clark said the next court hearing in the case was tentatively scheduled for March 26 before Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden.