PORTLAND - Proposals for a ballot measure that would stop Oregon from recognizing gay marriages in other states are rekindling an emotional issue that has divided Oregonians for years.

The issue got yet another jolt Tuesday when President Bush said he would support a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Oregon has been relatively tolerant of gay issues, but over time the state has a history of regulating who can marry whom.

It is an issue fueled by emotions, personal religious beliefs, states' rights arguments and constitutional questions.

"Separate but equal didn't work for Jim Crow and it won't work now," said Portland resident Floyd Sklaver, who married his partner Marc Acito in Victoria, British Columbia, July 23, just after Canada legalized same-sex marriages.

"How many marriages of husbands and wives have broken up in seven months because we married?" asked Acito at a news conference.

Portlander Kathy Belge, who flew to San Francisco on Valentine's Day to marry her longtime partner Tay Juncker, said they had never before made a formal commitment "because we wanted the opportunity to make it legal."

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who has backed a bill expanding hate crimes law to include gays and lesbians, backed Bush.

"I believe we can do more in the way of contractual rights, civil unions and financial benefits to help gay couples, but I would also support an amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman," Smith said.

In 2002 Smith was one of the few politicians to air a pro-gay rights TV commercial. The ad, which featured the mother of a gay college student who was beaten to death, was widely credited with helping him to an easy re-election.

Among Oregon cities, Ashland, Eugene and Multnomah County recognize same-sex "domestic partnerships," and courts and voters have seemed cautiously like-minded in recent years.

In 2000, voters defeated Measure 9, which would have banned homosexuality from being presented in schools in a positive light. The measure was defeated by about 52 percent to 48 percent, the third anti-gay rights measure voted down in the state in eight years.

The courts and lawmakers have taken a similar tone.

In 1998 the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Oregon Health & Sciences University to deny spousal benefits to gay couples. In 1992, it ruled unconstitutional a measure approved by voters in 1988 that would have made it legally permissible for state agencies to discriminate against gays and lesbians. In 1999, a bill that would have banned same-sex marriage passed the Oregon House, but was defeated in the Senate.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., called Bush's backing of a constitutional ban a distraction ploy. "At a time when we have the spectacle of Britney Spears' drunken midnight marriage in Las Vegas, the President sees fit to attack gays and lesbians who are interested in a committed relationship. This seems bizarre," he said.

But Oregon Republican party chairman Kevin Mannix, who has sponsored anti-gay legislation in the past, said Tuesday that the proposed Oregon ballot measures are a states' rights issue and that any law must "empower each state to make the determination without having to accept the determinations of other states."

People, not judges, should make the decision, Mannix said. Referring to the OHSU spousal benefits decision, he added, "It is not out of line to say we have seen warning signals in Oregon."

Oregon has dabbled in controlling marriages before.

In 1862 Oregon banned marriage between whites and anyone more than one-quarter black.

Four years later it extended the ban to anyone a quarter or more Chinese or Hawaiian or half or more Indian. That law was on the books, although not rigidly enforced in later years, until 1951.