Bend, Oregon, grapples with gay rights
When Mike Lovely moved to Bend, Oregon, in 1978 with the U.S. Forest Service, there was beautiful skiing, fine fishing and no gay bar. All that is still true today, but just about everything else has changed. Lovely, now 66, retired and in a long-term relationship with his partner, he recalls hearing from a local that all the gays and lesbians in Bend must have emigrated, like him, from California. "I said, 'Well, buckaroo, there are homegrown ones in Oregon, believe it or not,' " he said. The debate in Bend centers on a City Council proposal that would make it illegal to discriminate in housing, employment or public accommodation based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Bend would be the first municipality outside the heavily populated Interstate 5 corridor to adopt such protections.
The Oregonian
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