Basic Rights Oregon

Basic Rights Oregon is the largest non-profit gay rights organization in the U.S. state of Oregon. Based in Portland, its mission is to "end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon." Basic Rights Oregon is currently teaming up with the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance to organize queer students at Oregon’s colleges and universities. Working together the two collectives helped win two major victories this legislative session: the passage of the Oregon Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the Oregon Family Fairness Act, which grants domestic partnerships rights to same-sex couples.

Organizational efforts

Basic Rights Oregon was created in 1988 as a response to the Oregon Citizens Alliance, an organization which opposed gay rights. After an anti-gay ballot measure passed in 1988, Oregonians organized to protect gay rights, raising over $2 million in 1992 for a successful campaign to defeat the OCA’s next anti-gay effort, Ballot Measure 9, which would have prohibited "encouragement" of homosexual lifestyles in public schools. As the OCA continued to field city and county measures and promised to return to the statewide ballot in 1994, activists pressured for a stable political organization. Support Our Communities PAC was formed, leading to the defeat of the OCA’s Ballot Measure 13 in 1994, and the creation of what is now known as Basic Rights Oregon.

2004: Measure 36

In 2004, Basic Rights Oregon led the fight against Ballot Measure 36, which amended the Oregon Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. Prior to Oregon's Measure 36, Oregon statutes provided that marriage is a civil contract entered into in person between individuals of the opposite sex, that is, between males and females at least 17 years of age who solemnize the marriage by declaring "they take each other to be husband and wife." Prior to Measure 36, the Oregon Constitution contained no provision governing marriage. Currently, the State of Oregon recognizes out-of-state marriages that are valid in the state where performed, unless the marriage violates a strong public policy of Oregon. The measure adds to Oregon Constitution a declaration that the policy of the State of Oregon and its political subdivisions is that "only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage."

Although Basic Rights Oregon raised nearly $3 million to fight the measure, the ballot measure passed, with 57% in favor and 43% opposed.

External links

* [http://www.basicrights.org/ Basic Rights Oregon]
* [http://www.basicrights.blogspot.com/ Basic Rights Oregon Blog]
* [http://www.basicrights.org/issues/elections.asp/ Basic Rights Oregon EqualityPAC]
* [http://www.orstudents.org/osera/ Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance]
* [http://www.gayrightswatch.com/ Oregon's Gay Rights Watch Blog]