Senate Bill 1000 will be brought to a vote in the Oregon Senate Friday morning at 9 AM. That is the word from the Senate President's office yesterday after Oregonians from all over the State of Oregon (some who drove for hours through the middle of the night to be there) converged on the State Capitol to tell Senate Leadership: No more excuses. No more delays. Bring Senate Bill 1000 to a vote immediately.


Our powerful presence at the Capitol yesterday did not go unnoticed. Clad in blue SB 1000 t-shirts, we crowded legislators' entrance to the capitol in the morning. We then marched to Senate offices and spent the morning meeting with staff from Senate President Peter Courtney's office and meeting in person with Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown and staff.

We delivered a petition signed by hundreds of Oregonians demanding an immediate vote and asked each office to make a commitment to bring Senate Bill 1000 to a vote on the Senate floor no later than the end of this week. Although they didn't make that pledge in our meetings, they did commit to making this vote their number one priority.

Later, Senators Avel Gordly and Ben Westlund acknowledged our presence before the Senate as we watched from the gallery, reminding Senators that we are watching and waiting for them to take a stand against discrimination.

By the time we returned to the Basic Rights Oregon office in Portland a few hours later, we received word from the Senate President's office that Senate Bill 1000 will be brought to a vote on Friday morning, July 8 at 9 AM.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 at 12:16 PM.