Earlier tonight I attended the rally held by Basic Rights Oregon ^[1] with Divebarwife ^[2] and I don’t even know how many others (On the BRO site they had about 1500 RSVPs) as we stood together in the rain. It was great to see how many people were there in support of Basic Rights Oregon and the folks who got up to speak were all very passionate and well-spoken. It was REALLY cold but it was great to be surrounded by the love and the support in the park. A few times as the crowd was chanting or cheering you could hear the echo off the buildings around us and it was amazing how much noise we made!

Here’s the deal: There was a law passed so that Oregon could begin offering domestic partnerships to same sex couples. At the end of last year an anti-gay group from out of state showed up and filed a petition to halt it because somehow this was going to do irreparable harm to people in another state. Somehow a judge was convinced this was true and put a stop to the whole thing. More from BRO here. ^[3]

Well Friday there is another hearing on this. From Amy’s post over at the Merc ^[4]:

The hearing on the case itself is set for February 1, and it seems like it’ll be a showdown on what, exactly (or if any) is the relationship between voting and signing a petition. As Basic Rights Oregon’s attorney explained to reporters after the hearing, people who legitimately sign a petition aren’t ever guaranteed that their signature will count, as is expected with votes. The chief petition doesn’t even always turn in your signature, she pointed out.

On the way home tonight after the rally, DBW and I got to talking and she was telling me how surprised she was that so many people had NO idea this was even going on. So now you know! I’m betting The Merc ^[5] will be liveblogging (right Amy?) and if not there will be updates as soon as someone can get them posted. Plus you can find more info from Basic Rights Oregon ^[6] on the whole thing. So get informed and if it is important to you, take some action. It’s easy! If you need some suggestions I’ll be happy to give you some ideas for really quick and effective ways to get involved. In fact, whether you need them or not I’m going to try to compile a list for a future post.

In the meantime I’m going to enjoy the feeling I just got back in my toes. SERIOUSLY it was cold!