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Lon Mabon
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| Lon Mabon | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Oregon Citizens Alliance |
| Role: | Former executive director |
| Location: | Oregon |
Lon Mabon, a ballot initiative activist in Oregon, founded the now-defunct Oregon Citizens Alliance. Mabon's activism focused on ballot measures to criminalize abortions and amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Career
Lon Mabon began his career in the late 1980s when he started gathering signatures for ballot measures aimed at constitutionally defining marriage and making abortions illegal.[1]
Mabon and the Oregon Citizens Alliance gained national attention in 1992 when they gathered signatures to put Measure 9 on the ballot. The measure would have required all state and local governments to discourage homosexuality, other listed “behaviors” and to not facilitate or recognize them.[2] According to The Oregonian, during the 1992 campaign, "Mabon's rallying cry was 'no special rights.' The group's harsh rhetoric turned the campaign into an international story and actually attracted more voters to the polls than the presidential election."[3] The measure was defeated.
In 1993, Mabon vowed to continue working to pass legislation similar to Measure 9. He told The Seattle Times, "If you look at the last three or four decades in this country, maybe even longer, you have seen that those who believe in OCA's statement of principles, for example, have been losing the moral ground on a lot of issues, from pornography to abortion and gay rights and the importance of family. What we have said is that we're going to take a different posture, that we're going to be more aggressive and bold, along the lines of our Founding Fathers."[4]
In 1996, Mabon ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate but lost the Republican primary election with 8 percent of the vote.[1] [5] Mabon and the OCA designed another Measure 9 in 2000. This measure would have prohibited public schools from encouraging, promoting, sanctioning or instructing on homosexual or bisexual behaviors.[6] It was also defeated. He also attempted to pass anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage amendments in 1998, 2004 and 2008.[7][8]
Mabon was jailed in February 2002 for refusing to pay a $30,000 judgment against him. The amount was determined by a jury in a lawsuit filed against Mabon and the OCA in 1992, and Mabon was jailed for refusing to pay the amount and for refusing to recognize the authority of the judge presiding over the debt hearing.[9] Mabon was released from prison later that year.[10]
Recent news
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Oregon Oracle, "John Kuzmanich: the New Lon Mabon?" October 24, 2013
- ↑ Oregon State Library, "State of Oregon Official Voters' Pamphlet," accessed December 12, 2013
- ↑ The Oregonian, "The Photo Vault: Lon Mabon, Oregon's anti-gay warrior," July 1, 2010
- ↑ The Seattle Times, "Lon Mabon Sets 'Em Straight," October 3, 1993
- ↑ Basic Rights Oregon, "Lon Mabon Comes Out of the Closet With Another Anti-GLBT Ballot Initiative," May 18, 2008
- ↑ Oregon State Library, "State of Oregon Official Voters' Pamphlet," accessed December 14, 2013
- ↑ Willamette Week, "He's Back," February 11, 1998
- ↑ News With Views, "Chairman of Oregon Citizens Alliance mails petitions for November ballot," June 2, 2004
- ↑ World News Daily, "Judge jails anti-'gay rights' activist," March 7, 2002
- ↑ Portland Mercury, "In Other News...," June 27, 2002
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