FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2023
PORTLAND, OREGON — Basic Rights Oregon, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, and the ACLU of Oregon released the following joint statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions this week in 303 Creative v. Elenis (allowing discrimination by businesses towards LGBTQ+ people), Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC (prohibiting universities’ use of affirmative action policies to create racially diverse campuses), and Biden v. Nebraska (striking down the Biden Administration’s student debt relief program).
Kyndall Mason, Jennifer Williamson, and Sandy Chung, executive directors of Basic Rights Oregon, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, and the ACLU of Oregon respectively, stated:
“The message from the ultra-conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court is clear: they will stop at nothing to destroy freedom, equality, and bodily and life autonomy. To these justices, you don’t have the same fundamental rights if you are a pregnant person, a LGBTQ+ person, a Black or brown person, or a person who isn’t wealthy.
“None of our fundamental rights are safe from the U.S. Supreme Court. Thankfully, the right to same-gender marriage does not appear to be in the legal channel to the high court at this time. However, we must remain vigilant. It is critical that we strengthen our fundamental rights, freedoms, and equality at the state level.
“As we continue to experience the destructive decisions of the high court, Basic Rights Oregon, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, and ACLU of Oregon grow even more resolved to fight for abortion and reproductive rights, gender identity and gender-affirming care rights, and sexual orientation and same-gender marriage through the Oregon Constitution. Now is the time to educate and organize within our communities and to let the rest of the country know that discrimination and injustice will not stand in Oregon.”
Background Information:
A year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gutted almost 50 years of federal constitutional protections for abortion rights – which has resulted in people losing full bodily and life autonomy nationwide, as well as increased state surveillance, control, and criminalization of pregnant people and trans people trying to access essential healthcare – the U.S. Court is back at it. This week, the high court sided with businesses that want to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, restricted the ability of universities to create racially diverse campuses, and struck down the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan, among other decisions.
303 Creative v. Elenis was engineered to create a false controversy. The overwhelming majority of Americans – including business owners across the country – oppose discrimination and bigotry. 80% of people in our country support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, and a strong majority of 65% reject allowing businesses to use religion as a basis for denying service. Fair-minded people share the fundamental value that when a business opens its doors to the public, those doors should remain open to everyone, regardless of who they are or who they love. Today’s Supreme Court decision does not change the values of our nation’s majority, but it fails to curb bigotry against our LGBTQ+ loved ones, neighbors, and coworkers.
Our nondiscrimination laws were created to ensure that no one is turned away and treated as lesser-than because of who they are. In a country as diverse as ours, these protections are important for everyone. Over time, they have been reinforced to prohibit discrimination against marginalized groups, including people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and people of different faiths — including religions we now consider mainstream but which were once widely stigmatized.
The 303 Creative decision comes on the heels of the high court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC that removed the ability of colleges to use race as one of many factors in their affirmative action policies. This decision also comes on the day of the Biden v. Nebraska decision, which struck down the Biden Administration’s student debt relief plan.
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Basic Rights Oregon is a statewide advocacy organization that works to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit, intersex, and asexual Oregonians experience equality by building a broad and inclusive politically powerful movement, shifting public opinion, and achieving policy victories.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon is the statewide advocacy and political voice for Oregon’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates — Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette and Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon. PPAO engages in educational campaigns, grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy and other activities to champion people’s reproductive rights and make sexual and reproductive health care and education accessible and affordable.
ACLU of Oregon is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization with more than 27,000 members statewide. The organization works in the courts, in the state legislature and local governments, and in communities to defend and advance our civil liberties and civil rights under the U.S. and Oregon constitutions and laws. The ACLU of Oregon is an affiliate of the national ACLU, which has affiliates in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and more than 4 million members, activists, and supporters nationwide.