By Brad Cain

A.P. writer

SALEM, Ore.—Oregon’s gay rights advocates scored their second victory of the week when election officials said Oct. 12 that opponents of a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation had failed to muster enough signatures to derail the new law.

On Oct. 8, the secretary of state’s office reported that opponents had also fallen short on the signatures needed to put a referendum targeting a second new law allowing same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships on the November 2008 ballot.

Those announcements clear the way for both laws to go into effect, as scheduled, on Jan. 1.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a strong supporter who signed the bills, called them historic.

“Every decade or so there are a few bills that are actually transformational for Oregon,” Kulongoski said in a statement. The laws “will literally transform our state from one of exclusion to one of complete inclusion,” he added.

Opponents now plan to pursue an alternate route to get the measures before voters: initiative petitions to repeal the laws.

The opponents would have until July to collect signatures to get a statewide vote in November—at which point the measures would have been in effect nearly a year.

However, a spokesman for Oregon’s largest gay rights advocacy group said the fact that the opponents’ referral drive fizzled is an indicator of public sentiment on the issue.

“Most Oregonians supported these laws when they were passed and signed by the governor, they support the laws now, and they will support them a year from now,” said John Hummel, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. “Most Oregonians believe discrimination is wrong.”

State elections officials said the petition drive against the anti-discrimination law fell about 1,300 signatures short while the domestic partnerships one failed by 116 signatures.

On Jan. 1, Oregon will join eight states that have approved spousal rights in some form for gay couples—Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.

The other measure outlaws discrimination in housing, jobs and public accommodations based on sexual orientation. Oregon now is one of 18 states, including Illinois, with laws banning such discrimination.