PORTLAND (AP) — The Coquille Indian Tribe, based on the southern Oregon coast, recently adopted a law recognizing same-sex marriage, and its first such wedding is set for next spring.
Oregon voters amended the state constitution in 2004 to prohibit gay marriage. But as a federally recognized sovereign nation, the tribe is not bound by the Oregon Constitution.
American Indians are “sensitive to discrimination of any kind,” said Ken Tanner, chief of the Coquilles.
“For our tribe, we want people to walk in the shoes of other people and learn to respect differences. Through that, we think we build a stronger community,” he said.
The Coquilles are believed to be the first tribe to legalize same-sex marriage. Three years ago, a lesbian couple in Oklahoma tested a loophole in the Cherokee Nation’s law that defined marriage as between two people enrolled in the tribe.
The tribe’s clerk denied the couple’s marriage certificate, prompting a lawsuit, and the Cherokee Supreme Court eventually sided with the couple. But they never submitted the marriage certificate to the county clerk, which would have taken the issue outside the tribe. The tribal council later adopted a law banning same-sex marriage.
Read full article here
