Fork in the road

After what seems like months of being out of the headlines, suddenly same-sex marriage is back at the fore. Today, the governor announced he will propose legislation to create civil unions for same-sex couples and prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Only moments later, the Oregon Supreme Court announced on its website that it will rule tomorrow on the legality of 3,000 same-sex marriages performed last year in Multnomah County.

These events' "confluence," as b!X describes it, is bound to create a rich vortex of competing and contradicting conversations about the rights of same-sex couples and the meaning of marriage [right where we left off some four months ago], which, if the past is any guide, will result in more heat than light. Let the news-spin cycle begin.

Though he follows the court, and is acquainted with its members, WWP makes no claim to know how they will rule. In matters like this, the conventional "best guess" usually is that the court will "split the baby," that is, decide the case partly to the liking of one side, partly to the liking of the other side, and remand the rest back to a lower court. A couple of factors portend another result, however -- and one not necessarily one that will warm the cockles of Roey Thorpe's heart.

First is the matter of the speed of tomorrow's decision, which will be announced just one short year after the matter was first heard in circuit court -- and a scant four months after arguments before the supreme court itself. In Oregon, at least when the supreme court is involved, four months counts as light-speed. WWP will be pleasantly surprised [with the emphasis on surprise] if the Oregon supremes are able to muster a Brown vs. Board of Education on so short a timetable. But the timing alone suggests that instead, key portions of the case might be mooted, or at best, remanded.

And then there's the matter of the governor's plan for civil unions and an enhanced antidiscrimination law -- specifically, the timing of his announcement, coming today only as it became clear the supreme court would announce a decision in the pending same-sex marriage litigation tomorrow. WWP's not suggesting the governor knows something he shouldn't or we don't. But let's face it: Ted's no dummy, and he knows his way around Salem. Query: Is the governor's announcement today a salve for bad news tomorrow?

In any event, soon we will know if Oregon is a Massachusetts or a Mississippi.  Contrary to a poet's good advice, can it be that Oregon is poised to take "the road more traveled"?