Wheeler declares May 19 'Marriage Equality Day,' honoring landmark Oregon case
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has proclaimed May 19 'Marriage Equality Day,' honoring a decade since the court case that legalized marriage equality in Oregon.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has proclaimed May 19 'Marriage Equality Day,' honoring a decade since the court case that legalized marriage equality in Oregon.
That decision in that case, Geiger v. Kitzhaber, was issued on that same day in 2014 when a U.S. District Court Judge struck down Oregon's limitations on marriage to same-gender couples.
Twenty years ago, state voters passed a measure banning same-sex couples from marriage. Then 10 years later, a district court judge for Oregon issued a ruling finding Oregon's limitations on marriages were unconstitutional. That was the first time Oregonians had the guaranteed right to marry.
Attorney Misha Isaak was on that case and recalled the day he won.
"In Multnomah County, the decision came out right at noon and there were same sex couples at noon on May 19 in the county clerk's office in Multnomah County who were getting married," he told KOIN 6 News. "That whole day, there was a space reserved and judges and other officiants were ready to perform marriages of same sex couples. So there were dozens of couples that were married on that day 10 years ago today."
Isaak added there were multiple times during the case when they felt they were going to lose. But he is most proud of the result he and his team won for all couples in Oregon.
The decision in this case was handed down just over a year before the landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed the right nationwide in June 2015.