I brought the debugging issue up to my prof in my sexual orientation/gender identity and the law class last week, and it turns out that it was as simple, in Oregon, as writing in one line at the constitutional level. It was something to the effect of, "Any state law, statute, case, or local ordinance that references marriage will now read to reference marriage and domestic partnerships." Seriously. Here they just wrote in " 'marriage' = 'marriage + domestic partnerships'" somewhere near th beginning of the code (i.e. into the definitions section of the state constitution) and that did it. And since she was one of the attorneys who lobbied it for herself and her partner of like 25 years, I suspect she knew what she was doing.


((Apparently there is a 'secret' cabal of fab attys who meet biweekly in the offices of one of the richy-rich firms in the state where a member is partner to plan their legislative and legal/judicial maneuvering. Oregon actually HAS a gay agenda.))