Same Sex Marriages Demographic Analysis

1
Same Sex Marriages Demographic Analysis
 

• Karen Hampton, Registration Unit
• Oregon Center for Health Statistics

2
Vital Records time line

• March 2004 Multnomah County commissioners held
  press conference and began issuing marriage
  licenses to same sex couples.

3
Vital Records time line

• April 2004 Judge Bearden ordered the county to
  stop issuing licenses and the state to honor
  those that had been issued. Records were stored,
  but not registered.

4
Vital Records Update

• July 9, 2004 CHS was ordered to register the
  records as a ministerial act.
• July 16, 2004 All completed records were
  registered (2,958 of the final 2,976 received).

5
Vital Records Update

• April 14, 2005 Oregon Supreme Court declared same
  sex marriages void.
• CHS stopped issuing certified copies of same sex
  marriage records.

6
Oregon Supreme Court decision in Li vs. State of
Oregon

• The county erroneously transmogrified a
  governmental official's ongoing obligation to
  support the constitution into an implied grant of
  authority,, to prescribe remedies for any
  perceived constitutional shortcomings in such
  laws

7
Transmogrified?

• transmogrify
• To change into a different shape or form,
  especially one that is fantastic or bizarre.

8
Opportunities created

• Learned how quickly 3,000 records can be
  reviewed, numbered and entered.
• Mainframe system surprisingly endured the
  addition of a new field for sex.
• Jennifer Woodward was on a first name basis with
  more DOJ staff.
• Analyzed the demographic profile of same sex
  couples who chose to marry.

9
How do we know sex of spouses?
10
Limitations of data

• Marriage licenses were available to same sex
  couples only in Multnomah County, not statewide
  as to opposite sex couples.
• Licenses were available only between March 3 and
  April 20, 2004.
• And many more.

11
Residency

• Same sex couples were more likely to be
  non-residents than opposite sex couples.

12
Gender

• More than twice as many females married as males.

13
Age of Spouses

• The mean age of same sex couples was older than
  that of opposite sex couples.

14
Educational Attainment

• Education levels completed were higher for
  same-sex couples.

15
Previous Marriages

• Male/Male marriages were most likely to be the
  first marriage for both spouses.

16
Type of Ceremony

• Same sex couples were more likely to have
  religious officiants.

17
Ripples

• Measure 36 passed constitutional amendment
  defining marriage as between one man and one
  woman.
• Higher profile legislative debate on civil
  unions, reciprocal beneficiary agreements, and
  covenant marriages.

18
Additional information available

• On the CHS web site at http//oregon.gov/
• DHS/ph/chs/order/samesex.shtml
• On the Department of Justice web site at
  http//www.doj.state.or.us/samesex.htm

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Thank you for your time

• Karen Hampton
• Registration Unit Manager
• Oregon Center for Health Statistics
• Karen.R.Hampton_at_state.or.us
• [phone]