The days in Oregon seemed a little bit better for the LGBT community. The attorney general of the state of Oregon has expressed her intention that she will not be defending the state's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages, Bloomberg said. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has reportedly joined other top law enforcement officials who had openly refused to fight the legal challenges launched by individuals and entities against similar anti-gay prohibitions in five US states.
In a federal court filing made by Rosenblum in Eugene yesterday, she said that the anti-gay marriage statute will not be able to remain standing against a federal constitutional challenge under any standard of review. However, she said that state government of Oregon will continue to enforce the current legislation, which is to discount the union of same-sex couples.
Bloomberg said her answer was a response to several federal lawsuits brought against her and Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber in 2013, the news agency said. She now joins ellow Democratic attorneys general Kamala Harris of California, Mark Herring of Virginia, Lisa Madigan of Illinois, Kathleen Kane of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada who had refused to defend the bans on gay marriages from the lawsuits that challenge them.
Rosenblum wrote in her filing, "State defendants admit that performing same-sex marriages in Oregon would have no adverse effect on existing marriages, and that sexual orientation does not determine an individual's capacity to establish a loving and enduring relationship."
Oregon Untied for Marriage's campaign manager Mike Marshall said in a statement yesterday about Rosenblum's stance, "The Attorney General has taken a close look at the facts, and came to the same conclusion that courts around the country and freedom-minded Oregonians have: there is no reasonable or legal justification to exclude committed gay and lesbian couples from marriage."
Bloomberg said Rosenblum had joined other pro-gay marriage states that submitted filings against the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the gay-marriage ban in California.
