AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18831 posts, RR: 64 Posted (6 years 1 month 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 891 times:
After a couple of decades of contentious legislation and ballot measures, the Oregon House has passed legislation granting marriage-style benefits to same-sex couples, and adding sexual orientation to the definition of anti-discrimination in Oregon law.
Quoting http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418/LEGISLATURE/704180332/1042:
In a 35-25 vote, the House passed Senate Bill 2-A, which protects gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people from discrimination. They couldn't be arbitrarily fired from jobs, evicted from apartments or denied a seat in a restaurant or room in a hotel because of their sexual orientation.
So it's finally illegal to deny a job, apartment, meal in a restaurant (!!!), or hotel room, simply for being gay in Oregon.
But:
Quote: Churches and other faith-based groups are exempted, so they retain the freedom to hire and serve whoever they want, except for in commercial-type ventures such as hospitals.
A house of worship can still say "go somewhere else" or deny you employment in their tax-exempt activities if you're gay. (Before you say churches don't do that here--they do.)
::shake head::
N.B. For accuracy's sake, this bill has so far only passed in the House, but Senate passage seems assured, along with signing into law by the governor in due course.
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