Oregon

HOOD RIVER, Ore. – A lesbian couple in Oregon who went to find a baker for their wedding cake said they were turned away from a local bakery because they are gay. [ Read more → ]

With Rhode Island poised to become the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriage following a key vote in the state’s General Assembly scheduled for Thursday, supporters of marriage equality are shifting their focus to other states. [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. -- A federal appellate judge ruled this week the judiciary must grant health care benefits to the same-sex spouse of a federal public defender in Portland, and ruled that Oregon's same-sex marriage ban, enacted by voters in 2004, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act are both unconstitutional. [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. -- The Oregon attorney general's office on Friday rejected an attempt by gay marriage opponents to confuse voters by rewriting the ballot title for a proposed initiative that would legalize same-sex marriage in Oregon. [ Read more → ]

GRESHAM, Ore. — About a dozen parents and students wore pink T-shirts to the Thursday night school board meeting in Gresham in support of a principal who said he's losing his job because he's gay. [ Read more → ]

Oregon United for Marriage, a broad coalition working to legalize same-sex marriage in Oregon, submitted 2,000 sponsorship signatures to the Secretary of State Elections Office on Tuesday, twice the number needed to move move into the ballot title process. [ Read more → ]

GRESHAM, Ore. — Police in Gresham, Ore., said they have arrested five young people for beating and robbing a man they lured into a park under the pretense that he would be meeting another man for sex. [ Read more → ]

The Department of Veterans Affairs has decided to allow the same-sex spouse of a member of the military to be buried in a U.S. national cemetery. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki used his discretionary authority to allow the burial of Nancy Lynchild's ashes, the agency said Thursday. [ Read more → ]

PORTLAND, Ore. - Supporters of same-sex marriage have chosen, not so coincidentally, Valentine's Day to start their campaign to reverse Oregon's voter-approved ban on gay marriage. [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. -- Supporters of same-sex marriage said Monday they're aiming at a vote next year to reverse Oregon's ban on gay marriage, which was approved in 2004. [ Read more → ]

Baltimore pastry chef Duff Goldman, star of Food Network's "Ace of Cakes," has offered to bake and deliver -- free of charge -- a wedding cake to the lesbian couple in Oregon who was denied service by a local bakery because they are gay. [ Read more → ]

LA GRANDE, Ore. -- Jadin Bell, a 15-year-old gay teen who hanged himself two weeks ago after complaining of bullying, died Sunday afternoon at Doernbecher Children's Hospital on Portland. [ Read more → ]

GRESHAM, Ore. -- The Oregon Department of Justice is investigating a complaint that a bakery in Gresham, Ore., refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding, a possible violation of an Oregon law that prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation. [ Read more → ]

The officials are calling the impending death of young Jadin a “suicide”. It was not a suicide; it was the destruction of something innocent, something beautiful, something of supreme contribution exposed to an environment that valued it not at all. The facts support their word perhaps. No argument. A 15 year old boy took a rope to a playground and without assistance from any visible being, hung himself. [ Read more → ]

LA GRANDE, Ore. -- A 15-year-old teen has been taken off life support and is in critical condition after hanging himself over what family members describe as anti-gay bullying. Jadin Bell of La Grande, Ore., went to the playground of Central Elementary School on Jan.... [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. — Regulators in Oregon and California have quietly directed some health insurance companies to stop denying coverage for transgender patients because of their gender identity. The states aren't requiring coverage of specific medical treatments. But they told some private insurance companies they must... [ Read more → ]

Oregon state Rep. Tina Kotek was sworn in on Monday as her state's Speaker of the House, becoming the first open lesbian to lead a legislative chamber in the United States. Kotek, a third term lawmaker from North Portland who took the oath of office with her partner, Aimee Wilson, by her side, called the historic occasion “humbling.” [ Read more → ]

A Macy's employee in Clackamas, Ore., is being hailed as a hero for using his knowledge of the shopping complex to hustle customers out of the building during Tuesday's shooting rampage at the mall that left three people dead. [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. -- After fiercely contested races around the state, Democrats are poised to take over Oregon’s House of Representatives with a 34-26 majority, clearing the path for the ascension of openly lesbian House Democratic Leader Tina Kotek to the Speaker's chair. [ Read more → ]

All eyes are on the Supreme Court, with a big marriage showdown shaping up on the horizon. Two county clerks in Illinois have won right to defend the state's marriage ban. And equality gets a thumbs up from Methodists, and a thumbs down -- for now -- from Presbyterians. [ Read more → ]