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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMarch 10th, 2014
The Dorchester Conference, which claims to the nation’s oldest political conference, was established in Oregon in 1965 by Sen. Bob Packwood as a meeting of liberal Republicans in the state. Over the years, it has caught the attention of national political figures and eventually came to be a conclave of the more conservative Oregon Republicans.
However, this year the most conservative GOP Oregonians felt the need to be ever more exclusive and moved out of the big tent to a pup tent to put on a competing rally to rant about abortion and “religious freedom”. (Oregonian)
Rolf Glerum, a longtime Republican activist from Portland who has long warred with social conservatives, said he was happy to see the social conservatives split off.
“Holding this Dorchester without these malcontents is like going deer hunting without an accordion,” he said. “In other words, who cares.”
So this weekend the not-completely-crazy Oregon GOP leaders met to rail against Obamacare (which had a rather disastrous roll out in the state) and to allow candidates to appeal for support. And to endorse marriage equality. (KGW)
The conference celebrated 50 years this weekend and resulted in the first-ever endorsement of marriage equality after a 233 to 162 vote in favor of opposing Oregon’s ban.
“The freedom to marry is consistent with the Republican values of freedom, commitment and personal responsibility,” said Dan Occhipinti, a Portland attorney and Freedom Oregon leader. “If you can pay taxes and fight for your country, you should be able to marry the person you love.”
Reversing the ban will be on the Oregon ballot this year (unless the matter is reversed in court) and having the strong endorsement of moderate Republicans will be a significant advantage in the state.
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Steve
March 10th, 2014
This is called “the rats are leaving the sinking ship”
Merv
March 10th, 2014
Good report. I’m not from Oregon, but it looks like you did a good job of capturing the differences between the factions within the party, rather than just saying “Oregon Republicans did such and such.”
I hope this portends increased factionalization in other states, because that’s going to be the sign that things are changing. I’ve been surprised so far at how slow Republicans have been to change, with only a handful willing to speak out unambiguously in favor of gay rights.
Nathaniel
March 11th, 2014
I don’t think he meant it this way, but it sounds like, for Occhipinti, it is not enough for citizens to pay taxes to get equal rights, but they should also be able to die for their country outside the closet to really be considered worthy.
Soren456
March 11th, 2014
I always take an accordion when I go hunting. I thought you had to.
Steve
March 12th, 2014
And of course it turned out to be completely false:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/03/12/3397571/oregon-republican-party-marriage/
Despite Timothy’s usually shilling for all things Republican, the party is as backwards, theocratic and inhuman as it has been for decades.
Timothy Kincaid
March 12th, 2014
Steve,
I really don’t care whether you type the word “shilling” into every single commentary you make.
But as far as what I wrote, it is completely accurate and factual. It is also nuanced and tells the story of a growing division in the party. Perhaps you don’t like that story. But that doesn’t make it “false”.
You are welcome, as always, to state your opinions. You are not welcome to make false statements of fact.
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