Oregon ACLU victorious in landmark gay and lesbian rights case

In 1991, the Oregon ACLU was asked to work with a group of Oregon Health Sciences University employees who wanted their employer to extend health insurance benefits to their domestic partners. Our interest in this issue was a natural extension of the other work we had been doing to advance basic civil rights for lesbian and gay people. With the ACLUâs help, three lesbian OHSU employees and their domestic partners were able to enlist the services of a private attorney, develop a winning legal strategy and achieve the most significant advance in lesbian and gay rights ever in Oregon.

In December 1998, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a decision in Tanner v. OHSU that is a tremendous milestone in the legal rights of gay and lesbian Oregonians. There are three significant parts to this landmark decision:

1. The Oregon Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to decide that government is constitutionally required to recognize domestic partnerships.

2. The Court of Appeals also made it clear that current Oregon law prohibits any employer÷whether public or private÷from discriminating in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation. That makes Oregon the 11th state to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment and the first to do so on the basis of state law prohibiting gender discrimination.

3. In addition, the Court held the Oregon Bill of Rights requires public agencies÷such as OHSU or local governments and school districts÷to provide benefits to the domestic partners of their gay and lesbian employees if they provide benefits to the spouses of married employees.

We are very grateful to cooperating attorney Lynn Nakamoto who provided valuable support throughout the case by writing amicus briefs for the trial court and the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The backlash to the Tanner decision was immediate. See page 4 to learn about the legislatureâs attempts to repeal Tanner. Additionally, the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) has filed two anti-gay initiatives, which we are challenging.