Posted on 06/21/2005 9:28:02 PM PDT by DuckFan4ever
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The state's only Fortune 500 company has endorsed a Senate plan to create civil unions for same-sex couples.
Nike Inc. sent a letter expressing its support to Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and other legislative leaders on Tuesday.
"Civil unions promote inclusion by providing all our employees the opportunity to enter into lasting permanent relationships without regard to sexual orientation," wrote Wes Coleman, Nike's vice president of Global Human Relations.
"Many of our employees' lives will be better because of the passage of these bills."
The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to vote on the civil unions bill in the next week, but majority Republicans in the House are sticking by their plan to grant a more limited list of "reciprocal benefits" to all nontraditional families.
Supporters of civil unions said they hope Nike's announcement will give the bill a lift in the last weeks of the legislative session.
"We think that when a big company like Nike takes a position on such an important issue, that it does cause people, you know, to pay a little more attention," said Rebekah Kassell of Basic Rights Oregon.
Kassell said Nike joins several other Oregon businesses — such as Powell's City of Books and Norm Thompson — in supporting civil unions.
"Time is running out in the legislative session and I think what we hope lawmakers understand is that they are being watched on this issue by people across the state," Kassell said.
Meanwhile, a statewide poll released Monday showed there is more support than opposition among Oregon voters for civil unions.
The survey, conducted by Riley Research Associates, found that 49 percent of Oregon voters support civil unions — compared to 30 percent opposed and 21 percent undecided. The poll's margin of error is 4.5 percent.
But Rep. Dennis Richardson, sponsor of the reciprocal benefits bill, said he doesn't think Oregonians understand that civil unions are "marriage by another name."
"I think that if the poll were to carefully spell out that one is marriage by another name and another deals with issues of fairness, I think you would find a strong support for reciprocal benefits bill and a much lesser support for civil unions," the Central Point Republican said.
Richardson's bill was moved to the House State and Federal Affairs Committee Tuesday. He said he thinks his bill has enough support to pass the House.
The letter from Nike also backed a separate bill that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. Both bills were originally introduced by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Who "brown" mailed them?
One of the reasons I got out of HR in Corporations....they are just BIG GOVERNMENT.....
"Just do it!"
Uh, no thanks.
Damned! And I liked their air cell technology for cushioning.
"Civil unions promote inclusion by providing all our employees the opportunity to enter into lasting permanent relationships without regard to sexual orientation," wrote Wes Coleman, Nike's vice president of Global Human Relations.
So much for Nike. I really liked their shoes, too.
Maybe I'll try Adidas.
Gay marriage is like jogging while wearing a red Nike shoe on one foot and a green Nike shoe on the other. It's just not right.
Down here in Texas, we're not allowed to outlaw sodomy anymore, but we're sure as hell not going to allow gay marriage, or civil unions, or whatever you want to call them!
Black Atheletes will love this.
Dang!
Now I can't buy Ford's or Nike's.
Good-bye Nike. I can manage without you a good deal easier than you can manage without me.
I have had a lot of success with sneakers called "New Balance". They look okay, they aren't expensive, and they seem to last a lomg time. That's all I need.
Well, I'm sticking to my old faithful....Aasics.
I've been running in New Balance since 1990 and wouldn't give Nike the time of day. I've got a pair of 540s that I've been running for at least 7 years. Nikes are 60% marketing and 40% product.
Dump Nike. Your feet (brain & heart) will be glad you did.
dung.
Does anyone have an email address for Nike so that I can tell them that my lifelong business relationship with them is now over?
still trying to post urls (sigh)...
http://swoosh.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/swoosh.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
People are gullible enough to let them do it, probably.
Dear Nike:
You suck.
You shouldn't try to make everyone else suck as well!!
Nike can spend their money any way they want to and so can we.
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