Politics
Wednesday March 24, 2004
Forbidden from Allowing Homosexual 'Marriage' Oregon County Refuses All Marriages
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
CORVALLIS, Oregon, March 24, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Benton county's commissioners last week gave the go-ahead to issue marriage licenses to homosexuals, yet today county officials aren't giving out marriage licenses at all - to same-sex or heterosexual couples. The three commissioners reversed their decision Monday in response to a deluge of lawsuits pending over similar actions taken by other jurisdictions around the country.
Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell told the Reuters news service that "It may seem odd," but "we need to treat everyone in our county equally."
In a statement, State Attorney General Hardy Myers said that he was "very pleased" with the decision. "It is my sincere hope that legal process will provide clarity for each of Oregon's counties." Oregon's Multnomah County is currently the only jurisdiction in the U.S. still illegally handing out marriage licenses to homosexual couples.
"We are happy Benton County is not going to violate the law by issuing illegal marriage licenses, but we are perplexed as to why they would not issue legal licenses," Defense of Marriage Coalition spokesman, Tim Nashif, said. "Oregon not only has the only county in the nation issuing illegal (same-sex) marriage licenses, we probably have the only county in the nation refusing to issue marriage licenses at all."
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has said it will file a lawsuit against Oregon State for not registering the 2,550 marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples by officials in Multnomah County.
And in Sandoval County, New Mexico, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the county clerk to prevent her from issuing more marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The courts will deliberate whether to issue a permanent injunction on April 2.
Clerk Victoria Dunlap, after issuing 66 licenses in February, was later advised by Attorney General Patricia Madrid that the licenses were invalid. Madrid said that "Until the laws are changed through the legislative process or declared unconstitutional by the judicial process, the statutes limit marriage in New Mexico to a man and a woman."
Also, in Connecticut, a congressional delegation has declared their opposition to a constitutional amendment supported by U.S. President George W. Bush to affirm marriage solely as the union of a man and a woman. The delegation argues that individual states should make the decision whether to allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
Read the Reuters coverage at: http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:40617890:98e0d46d51276ec?type=en...
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.