UPDATE: Oregon Heterosexist Supremacists Targeting Recent LGBT Victories

Ahhh, here they come.... Thursday's Oregonian newspaper carried an article entitled "Gay-rights battle won; war still looms" about attempts by right-wing groups in Oregon to "refer" the two LGBT rights bills recently signed into law by the Governor to a majority vote by the Oregon eletorate (which is vote-by-mail only).

[...]

The Oregon Family Council, a Christian group that led the fight against the bills, on short notice summoned 500 pastors to Salem to lobby against them, said Tim Nashif, the group's political director. Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland, chair of the House committee that held public hearings on the bills, received more than 1,000 calls and e-mails. Some were so threatening that she was escorted to and from public hearings by Oregon State Police officers.

But since the bills passed, calls and e-mails from both supporters and opponents have dwindled to a trickle.

That raises the question of whether there is sufficient momentum among opponents to put the two measures before voters in the November 2008 election. To do so, they must collect 55,179 signatures from registered voters within 90 days after the Legislature adjourns.

The Oregon Family Council proved it has the clout to organize a referendum with its successful campaign to put Measure 36 on the ballot. But the council says it will not refer the laws.

Jack Brown of Grants Pass, chairman of the Constitution Party of Oregon, says he and other members will. They are forming an independent committee to organize a referral effort and file with the Oregon Secretary of State by Monday, he said.

The group sees the anti-discrimination bill as granting special rights to gays and lesbians. And domestic partnerships fly in the face of Measure 36, Brown said. The bills represent "a flagrant violation of the public trust by elected representatives," he said.

[...]

The Oregon Family Fairness Act (enacts same-sex domestic partnerships in the state with several but not all the rights, responsibilities and benefits of marriage) and Oregon Equality Act (adds sexual orientation and gender identity to non-discrimination Oregon's statutes) would go into effect January 1, 2008 unless a ballot measure attempting to repeal the measures qualifies before then.

Basic Rights Oregon is the main group which has fought and defeated past anti-LGBT ballot measures in Oregon and will be the central organizers to defend the hard-fought victories of equal rights for all LGBT citizens of Oregon in the face of any future ballot measures.