{Oregon} The Queer Frontier

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I've driven from Prineville to Boise via Bend on U.S. 20. This is some remote country. Make sure your car is in good condition if you're going to make the trip. Good article. It's worth the time to read.

The Queer Frontier
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-21011-the-queer-frontier.html

The battle over gay marriage moves to rural Oregon.
August 14th, 2013 ANDREA DAMEWOOD | Cover Story

Leighton Reed-Nickerson wheels his black 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible into the parking lot of the Harney County Farmers Market, a collection of a dozen stands selling vegetables, rag rugs and loaves of marionberry bread.

He’s not here to shop. Reed-Nickerson—wearing a pink polo short, a “Vietnam Veteran” cap and a ruby earring—intends to collect 50 signatures for a petition to overturn the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.

He knows this crowd. He’s a member of the City Council in Burns, a half-day drive from Portland, and owns the only radio stations serving this vast county, as big as Massachusetts but with only enough people to fill a third of the Rose Garden. It’s also one of the most conservative places in Oregon, a county that voted 3-to-1 to pass this state’s gay-marriage ban nearly a decade ago.

Reed-Nickerson pauses before he parks. “Maybe I should back in,” he says, “just in case we get chased out of here.”

[TexasTowelie]

1. Okay, were the editors trying to get some attention with sexual innuendo

of "maybe I should back in" being parsed from the second clause of that sentence?

[DreamGypsy]

2. Over 76,000 signatures on the petitions...

...as reported by Oregonians United for Marriage:

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We've passed 76,000. Each conversation is vital.
Help us reach every voter with our message --
will you collect a few signatures this week?

The minimum number of signatures needed to get the measure on the 2014 ballot is 116,284, so we're at 65%