Candlelight Vigils Replace Domestic Partnership Celebration in Portland on January 2nd

Vigils are also replacing community celebrations in Bend, Ashland, Eugene and Corvallis.

Salem-News.com

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Oregon Basic Rights will hold a candlelight vigil to mark the day that was supposed to see the implementation of a new law endorsed by Oregon voters that would allow limited privileges to same sex couples.

They say it follows, "the shocking news Friday that a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order delaying the implementation of Oregon's new Domestic Partnership law."

Basic Rights Oregon has canceled its January 2nd celebration at Portland's Gerding Theatre at the Armory. Instead, Basic Rights Oregon, Portland's Q Center, and community leaders will hold a candlelight vigil to draw attention to the real harm that this delay will cause to Oregonians and their families.

They plan to meet at Portland's Q Center, located at 69 SE Taylor Street in Portland When: January 2nd starting at 5:30 PM. They expect a number of people to be in attendance including community leaders, elected officials, committed couples, their families, friends and neighbors.

Basic Rights Oregon's Executive Director, Jeana Frazzini, called the judge's ruling "nothing short of outrage. The suit is an eleventh hour effort to keep caring, committed Oregon couples from critical and necessary rights, and it is shameful."

Frazzini invited all fair-minded Oregonians to attend the vigil and light a candle for their own family, or one of the hundreds of other Oregon families who will be harmed by the delay in the domestic partnership law.

Vigils are also replacing community celebrations in Bend, Ashland, Eugene and Corvallis. For more information, please visit the Basic Rights Oregon web site at basicrights.org.