Legislators act to get civil union law repealed

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Less than a month after same-sex couples started taking advantage of a new law allowing them to register as domestic partners, two Republican state legislators filed a proposed initiative that would repeal it.

Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, and Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, are chief petitioners for the initiative filed late Friday with the secretary of state's office. Opponents of the civil union law say it undermines a measure approved by voters in 2004 that amended the Oregon Constitution to declare that marriage is only legal when it's between a man and a woman.

"People need to weigh in," Esquivel said.

The law passed by the 2007 Legislature was to take effect when the new year started, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman suspended it to hear testimony about a petition drive that sought to put the law before voters. The petitions fell 96 valid signatures short of the 55,179 needed to refer the law to the November 2008 ballot.

The law belatedly took effect last month after Mosman ruled the state's process of disqualifying petition signatures was consistent enough to be valid.

More than 1,300 same-sex couples registered for domestic partnerships last month. The law gives those couples most of the state benefits of marriage.

Esquivel and Girod are supporting the initiative on behalf of opponents organized by Marylin Shannon, a former Republican state senator.

Shannon's group is the one that failed to gather enough signatures to refer the law to voters. Now it must collect 82,769 valid signatures from residents by July 3 to put the initiative on the fall ballot.

Basic Rights Oregon, the state's largest gay-rights group, said it would fight any attempt to overturn the civil unions law.

"Folks behind this effort are really out of step with Oregonians," said Jeana Frazzini, executive director.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)