OREGONIAN EDITORIAL

In the coldest possible terms, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Frank L. Bearden will probably be remembered as the guy who halted the honeymoon. The same-sex wedding voyage took off abruptly on March 3, when Multnomah County started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. The journey ended just as abruptly Tuesday, after Bearden's ruling.

While Bearden disappointed same-sex couples waiting for their marriage licenses this week, those who read his ruling may decide to cancel the flowers but not the champagne. In the long run, Bearden has given same-sex couples in Oregon far more reasons to toast the future than to despair.

The ruling is a masterful compromise that miraculously manages to be respectful of Oregonians on all sides of the gay marriage question. But Bearden left no doubt that he thinks the Oregon Constitution demands equal treatment of gay and straight couples.

Beginning with this: Bearden ordered the state to register the more than 3,000 marriage licenses issued thus far in Multnomah County to same-sex couples. The state had refused to do so, treating them as if they were written in pencil. Bearden, in a stroke, recognized that equal treatment of these married individuals under the Oregon Constitution demands that their marriage licenses not be treated as erasable.

That's an important principle in itself. Bearden's ruling holds out hope that the Oregon Constitution will allow our state to craft a Vermont-style compromise on gay marriage, granting civil unions to gays and lesbians.

Clearly, Bearden is not eager to see a court-imposed answer on gay marriage, like the one enforced in Massachusetts. There, gay weddings will begin in May, on the strength of a 4-3 state supreme court ruling. Bearden's ruling suggests that the Oregon Legislature could craft a legislative solution that would give partners in gay unions both their constitutional rights and more widespread public acceptance.

But Bearden also imposed a deadline. If the Legislature does not come up with a solution within 90 days of convening in special or regular session, then the judge's order would require Multnomah County -- require it -- to resume issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

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posted by Eve at 3:59 PM | link

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