The Rise and Fall of “No Special Rights”

Abstract

THE OREGONIAN, the largest newspaper in the state, delivered a bracing message to readers from its editorial page the morning of October 11, 1992: “Oregon faces a clear and present danger of becoming the first state since the Civil War to withdraw civil rights instead of adding to them.” The editorial warned that Oregon’s ballot would include a “ghastly gospel” promoted by “would-be ayatollahs.” The official name for this “ghastly gospel” was Measure 9, and the “ayatollahs” were its sponsors, the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA).1 As it appeared on the Oregon ballot, Measure 9 asked voters: “Shall [the state] Constitution be amended to require that all governments discourage homosexuality, other listed ‘behaviors,’ and not facilitate or recognize them?” The “other behaviors” mentioned by the measure were “pedophilia, sadism, or masochism.”2 It was one of the most comprehensive — and harshest — antigay measures put to voters in American history. The editors of the Oregonian were so concerned about the possibility of the measure’s passage that they did not limit their denunciation to a single editorial. The paper ran an eleven-part series condemning the measure, with each entry titled “Oregon’s Inquisition.” They had good reason to be vigilant. Four years earlier, OCA had sponsored another anti–lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) measure, Measure 8, designed to overturn an executive order prohibiting discrimination in the state government.3 That measure trailed in the polls through the entire campaign, only to win a shocking victory on election night. The election of 1992 threatened to produce a similar outcome — and not only in Oregon. As Oregon voters considered Measure 9, voters in Colorado confronted another anti–LGBTQ rights measure: Amendment 2, which would overturn all gay-rights laws in the state and prohibit the passage of new ones. THE COLUMBIA COUNTY CITIZENS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY group of Oregon formed in 1992 in response to Oregon Measure 9, a campaign to amend the Oregon Constitution to require discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Members of the group are pictured here marching in protest of the measure.