Oregon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 19, climbed on a play structure and hanged himself. He […]

Regulators in Oregon and California have quietly directed some health insurance companies to stop denying coverage for transgender patients because of their gender identity.

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.”

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.

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.

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.