Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007 12:00 am
Whatever their motivation, opponents of Oregon's "domestic partnership" law are making a strategic mistake with their drive to block the law and refer it to the voters in November 2008. After 20 years of arguments about this topic, the last thing Oregon needs is yet another election campaign on gay rights.
What would be the likely result of such a campaign? It probably would energize more young and mostly liberal voters, resulting in even more legislative gains for Democrats, the very people who enacted the partnership law that the opponents want to block.
In the news, the signers of the referral petition have been called social conservatives. Maybe that's the best anybody could think of, but the term is not a good fit.
It's not all that conservative to busy yourself about what other people do that does not affect you. It's more conservative to leave people alone in their private business and not to meddle.
It's also conservative to treat people fairly. The domestic partnership law doesn't change anything in the way people live, but it does remove some hassles from people living with a partner of the same sex. What, for example, is fair about not letting somebody like that visit her partner when the partner is sick and in the hospital?
Oregon has already voted that adults of the same sex can't call their partnerships a marriage. That doesn't mean the state should continue to hassle the people that this affects.
Let's remember the late Senator Goldwater, widely known as Mr. Conservative. His views on this topic are known. And if he were alive, he would say: Leave people alone, and if they want to form a legal partnership recognized by the state, what's it to you? (hh)