Oregon

[gennee]

I AM surprised that Oregon doesn't have same sex marriage. Oregonians, time to get to work.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

It will take two initiatives to get it done.  In 2004, Ballot Measure 36 was approved by a margin of 57% to 43%.  This measure changed the state constitution to defining the marriage of a man and a woman as the only one recognized by the state.

It will take another measure to remove that, and another to establish same sex marriage.  Oregon, despite cities like Portland, is a rural state.  And it is conservative in a lot of ways.

[gennee]

Is the referendum up for vote soon? Is anybody working on this?

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Basic Rights Oregon is going to start one for the 2014 elections

[Miharu Barbie]

I am seriously considering a move to New York State in the next year.  I get the sense that Portland, Eugene and Ashland are 3 little progressive pockets in an otherwise bass ackwards good ol' boys stronghold.  It's hard to believe that the East Coast has left the West Coast in the proverbial dark ages relative to GLBT rights.  I'm just about ready for a change of scenery.

[Brooke777]

I am seriously considering a move to New York State in the next year.  I get the sense that Portland, Eugene and Ashland are 3 little progressive pockets in an otherwise bass ackwards good ol' boys stronghold.  It's hard to believe that the East Coast has left the West Coast in the proverbial dark ages relative to GLBT rights.  I'm just about ready for a change of scenery.

You don't have to go to the deep dark east coast, just come up here to Seattle.

[sigmafan]

I am seriously considering a move to New York State in the next year.  I get the sense that Portland, Eugene and Ashland are 3 little progressive pockets in an otherwise bass ackwards good ol' boys stronghold.  It's hard to believe that the East Coast has left the West Coast in the proverbial dark ages relative to GLBT rights.  I'm just about ready for a change of scenery.

Miharu, I'd agree with Brooke.  Washington is very progressive about LGBT rights, and is also another beautiful area.  Olympia and Seattle are really desirable places for those who want to live their life the way they see fit.

[tekla]

You'll find that once you get out of the BosWash back east necks get red pretty fast, the whole deal about Pennsyltucky comes to mind, and you'll find most of upstate NY is pretty Republican.

And California got caught up in the votes, the court fights, the fights in the legislature and all that precisely because SF started doing it in 2004, kicking the whole thing off.  And, again, it only lost on the ballot because of religious types from out of state gave huge amounts of money to skew the election in 2008.  But, because of that, it's unlikely that any state is ever going to get to ban it by election, so there is that.  And, when the Cali fight is done this year, the SC is going to have to uphold it, and that's going to be the end of DOMA too.

[FullThrottleMalehem]

I was thinking based on Portland that Oregon was a pretty progressive state when it comes to LGBT issues. I guess the place I want to move now is Olympia or Seattle.

[tekla]

Pretty much the Willamette Valley (Portland-Eugene) is West-Coast liberal/progressive (with all the good and bad that entails), and the rest of ORE (just like The Puget Sound and the rest of WA) is Western Conservative with all the good and bad that entails.  To the degree that the big population areas dominate the State, they have liberal/progressive social policies, but it don't mean everyone around the bar there in Pendleton is buying into it.