Basic Rights Oregon
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Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) is an American nonprofit gay rights organization based in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest advocacy, education, and political organization working in Oregon to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.[1] BRO has twelve full-time staff, a contract lobbyist, three offices statewide, more than 10,000 contributors, and 5,000 volunteers.[2] It is a 501(c)(4) organization that maintains a 501(c)(3) education fund, a state candidate PAC and a ballot measure PAC, with a combined annual budget of nearly $1 million.[2]
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[edit] History
Basic Rights Oregon was created in 1988 as a response to the Oregon Citizens Alliance, an organization that opposed gay rights. After an anti-gay ballot measure passed in 1988, Oregonians organized to protect gay rights, raising over $2 million in 1992 for a successful campaign to defeat the OCA's next anti-gay effort,[citation needed] Ballot Measure 9, which would have prohibited "encouragement" of homosexual lifestyles in public schools.[3] As the OCA continued to field city and county measures and promised to return to the statewide ballot in 1994, activists pressured for a stable political organization. Support Our Communities-PAC (SOC-PAC) was formed in 1983, leading to the defeat of the OCA's Measure 13 in 1994,[citation needed] and the creation of what is now known as Basic Rights Oregon.[4]
[edit] Li vs. State
In 2004, BRO, nine same-sex couples, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Multnomah County joined as plaintiffs against the State of Oregon, the Governor, the Attorney General, the Director of the Department of Human Services, and the State Registrar in a suit in the Oregon Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the statutes (ORS chapter 106) prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying on the same terms as opposite-sex couples violated the Oregon Constitution.[5]
[edit] Measure 36
In 2004, Basic Rights Oregon worked against Ballot Measure 36, which amended the Oregon Constitution to prohibit gay marriage.
Although Basic Rights Oregon raised nearly $3 million to fight the measure, it passed with 57% in favor and 43% opposed.
[edit] College and youth organizing
Basic Rights Oregon is currently[when?] teaming up with the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance to organize queer students at Oregon's colleges and universities. Basic Rights Oregon has also begun a LGBTQ youth coalition known as QPOWER. Working together the two collectives[clarification needed] helped win two major victories this[when?] legislative session: the passage of the Oregon Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the Oregon Family Fairness Act, which grants domestic partnerships rights to same-sex couples.[citation needed]
[edit] Outreach to other communities
When anti-immigration legislation in California appeared to be inspiring similar efforts in Oregon, BRO reached out to PCUN, the Oregon farmworkers' union, and also the state's largest Latino organization, to offer its support in the fight against discrimination.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Gould, Mark R. (2009). The Library PR Handbook: High-Impact Communications. American Library Association. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-8389-1002-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=zbUe2e-Z2b4C&pg=PA11.
- ^ a b "Our History". Basic Rights Oregon. http://www.basicrights.org/?page_id=34. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
- ^ Oregon Voters' Pamphlet, November 3, 1992, p. 93, hosted at the Benton County Elections Division website.
- ^ Stephen, Lynn (2009). "Building Alliances: An Ethnography of Collaboration Between Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and CAUSA in Oregon". Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service Leadership Center for Leadership in Action. http://wagner.nyu.edu/leadership/tools/files/EthnographyBuildingAlliances.pdf. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
- ^ M. Bast, Carol; Ransford C. Pyle (2011). Foundations of Law: Cases, Commentary and Ethics. Clinton Park, New Jersey: Delmar. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-4354-4084-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=LOy55Are_ZcC&pg=PA177.
[edit] External links
- Basic Rights Oregon (official website)
