Across Oregon this week, groups of students from eight campuses have become involved with Students United for Marriage—a subset of Oregon United for Marriage, which is an advocacy group working to legalize gay marriage in Oregon.
The group focuses on collecting signatures, registering people to vote, running campaign events and spreading the word about equal marriage rights.
Besides Portland State, some of the other campuses involved are the University of Oregon, Oregon State, Portland Community College and Willamette University.
According to the Students United for Marriage website, students are a huge part of the marriage equality movement. “Eighty-one percent of young adults, 18 to 29 years old—regardless of political affiliation—support the freedom to marry,” the website states.
“As students, we value freedom and equal treatment. The freedom to marry the person you love is a fundamental freedom that should not be denied to anyone,” stated an Oregon United for Marriage press release. “Oregon is the only state where marriage for same-sex couples is slated to be on the ballot this year.”
The press release also said that Oregon is the only state on the West Coast that excludes same-sex couples from marriage.
So far, there are more than 127,000 signatures collected in support of placing the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protections Initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot. Students have collected more than 5,500 of those signatures and are still working to collect more.
In order for the initiative to qualify, 116,284 valid signatures are needed. The campaign is aiming to submit thousands of additional signatures to ensure qualification.
For more information visit Students United for Marriage online at:
http://www.oregonunitedformarriage.org/category/Students/