Columbia Sportswear has backed a
proposed gay marriage ballot initiative in Oregon.
The Washington County-based
publicly-traded manufacturer of outerwear and sportswear is the
largest company to support the proposed 2014 initiative that seeks to
repeal the state's 2004 ban and legalize gay nuptials.
CEO Tim Boyle told alternative weekly
Willamette
Week that he'll personally support the measure.
“It doesn't make any sense to exclude
people from the constitutional rights they should have,” Boyle
said. “Frankly, this should have happened a long time ago.”
Boyle said that he independently
decided that the company would back the measure.
“It was not a difficult decision,”
he said.
Supporters began collecting signatures
in August and have until next summer to collect the 116,284 valid
signatures needed to qualify for the November 2014 ballot.
(Related: Oregon
gay marriage measure gathers one-third of signatures in 12 days.)
If the measure is approved next year, Oregon
would make history as the first state to repeal a constitutional
amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.