We'll start with the bad news, so we can end on a lighter hearted note. The Oregon Supreme Court has invalidated the same-sex marriage licenses granted in Multnomah County last year. The reasoning appears to be that the county did not have the authority to remedy (or even decide upon) a matter involving the state constitution, existing statute defined marriages as between a man and a woman, and that the constitutional issue was only with whether or not the "benefits of marriage" could be withheld, not marriage itself. As a result, the 3,000 or so marriages licenses were deemed invalid to begin with.

It's not entirely bleak, though; the Oregon Supreme Court did not make any decision about the constitutionality of withholding the benefits of marriage, and the governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, yesterday "introduced legislation that would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and provide legal protections and recognition of committed, same-sex relationships through a civil union." In short, even in Oregon, it isn't over yet.

Now on to the good news:

Connecticut actually passed similar legislation, becoming the second state in the US to allow same-sex civil unions (the first being Vermont), and the first to do so without orders from a court. Same-sex couples get all benefits except the name: an amendment to the legislation forces the word "marriage" to refer legally only to man-woman pairings. Same-sex marriage advocates are unhappy that this makes them "second-class citizens", but I think this is a victory in every sense that counts. Nothing is preventing them from using referring to their civil unions as marriages among themselves, and once the words are equivalent in common use, it should be fairly easy to merge the terms legally as well.

Link credit for the bad news goes to Pacific Views and Also Also, who I hope will enjoy hearing about the good news.