c. 2007 Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. _ Marriage slipped out of their grasp, but Linda Duchek and Marte Sheeran say the benefits of marriage may be within their reach through a possible civil union law this year.

The couple of 11 years got a taste of marriage when Multnomah County issued marriage licenses to 3,000 same-sex couples in the spring of 2004. Then voters passed Measure 36, which amended the Oregon Constitution to declare marriage legally valid only between a man and a woman. Following that, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the Multnomah marriages were illegal and null.

Duchek, 57, and Sheeran, 53, saw their marriage dissolve into a fantasy and sat home and cried.

But now they see forces coming together to give them, if not marriage, at least what they see as a step forward _ a civil union law, which would extend most of the inheritance, property, medical and other benefits of marriage to same-sex couples.

A governor’s task force recently recommended that the Legislature pass both a Vermont-style civil union law and a law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in jobs and housing. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and legislative leaders, all Democrats, are drafting bills for both laws and see good prospects for them passing.

“I consider this the civil rights struggle for our generation,” said state Sen. Ben Westlund, who co-sponsored a 2005 civil union and anti-discrimination bill that passed in the Senate and died in the Republican-controlled House. “It is something that will happen, so why not make it now?”

House Speaker Jeff Merkley said civil unions “resonate with the vast majority of the (Democratic) caucus.” Proposed laws probably will surface later in the session, he said, as legislators want time to consider how they present them.

Civil union or domestic partnership laws for same-sex couples have been adopted in California, Vermont, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maine and New Jersey. And most recent national polls show a slim majority of Americans support civil unions.

Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s largest gay rights group, and its supporters are cautious, however, about taking victory for granted. Bills proposing anti-discrimination laws for gays and lesbians have been repeatedly defeated in the Legislature over the past three decades.

The Oregon Family Council, a nonprofit Christian group that led the campaign to pass the anti-gay marriage measure in 2004, says it will fight civil union and anti-discrimination laws, and even some Democrats have concerns about it.

The council argues there is no evidence that gays and lesbians are discriminated against in housing and employment. What’s more, an anti-discrimination law would confer minority status on gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender Oregonians, which the council opposes, says Tim Nashif, the group’s political director.

Gay rights activists, meanwhile, say a law would not give gays and lesbians minority status but would give them legal recourse when they encounter prejudice in housing and employment.

If the Legislature approves an anti-discrimination law, the family council says, it will consider collecting signatures to refer the law to the ballot for voter approval, especially if the law does not clearly exempt religious organizations, Nashif said.

“Don’t create laws that force us to believe like you do,” he said.

The council also will oppose civil unions, arguing instead in favor of a reciprocal benefits law that would extend marriage benefits to any couple who are a household but cannot marry, such as two sisters.

“We don’t think two widows living together should have to declare themselves lesbians to get benefits,” Nashif said.

Gay and lesbian couples must spend thousands of dollars in legal fees and time-consuming paperwork to ensure that their partners are able to make medical decisions for them, visit them in the hospital, inherit their property or take care of their children, the governor’s task force reported.

Gay and lesbian couples express mixed feelings about civil unions. They welcome the practical benefits but resent the separate-but-equal status they confer.

“We would still feel like second-class citizens,” said Peggy Frantz-Geddes, an elementary physical education teacher who lives in Salem with her partner Nancy Frantz-Geddes, director of nursing at the Oregon State Hospital, and their two children.

A civil union law “would be good; it just won’t be the best,” Peggy Frantz-Geddes said.

(Bill Graves writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)

KRE/PH END GRAVES