Basic Rights Oregon, Protect My Children
A mother addresses the camera: "Sponsors of Measure 13 are saying a lot of things that just aren't true. For instance, they say it'll protect my children when I don't believe there's really a problem, And if there was a problem, I'd want it handled by parents and the school principal, not by changing the constitution. You know, I trust the Oregon Pediatric Association and they say Measure 13 will do nothing to protect children. The OCA is using children to scare me into voting for discrimination; that's wrong. I'm voting no on Measure 13."
The OCA's measure is a repeat visitation of a similar earlier measure, Measure 9, as the group has repeatedly sought just the right language to win a victory against gay civil rights.
A 2000 version of Measure 13 prohibited public schools from "encouraging, promoting or sanctioning homosexuality." Schools were to be prohibited from providing instruction -- ranging from sex education to counseling for individual students with questions about their sexual orientation -- in a manner that encourages, promotes or sanctions homosexuality or bisexuality.
The measure failed, as it has each time in the past, by a narrow margin, 52% to 48%.
The OCA scored its first big victory in 1988 when it won voter approval for a measure repealing the governor's executive order granting gays and lesbians protections from employment discrimination. The group then followed with Measure 9 in 1992 and 1994's Measure 13, both which would have banned the government from using public dollars to "promote or sanction homosexuality."
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