Marriage Equality Headed for the Ballot Box in Maine -- This Time Backed by Family Parity Advocates

Voters in Maine will likely be weighing in once more on marriage equality, but this time it's family parity advocates who are putting a measure on the ballot, multiple media sources reported on Aug. 17.

Maine's Secretary of State approved language for the ballot initiative, titled "An Act to Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-Sex Couples and Protect Religious Freedom," that same day. The last time voters addressed the issue of the right of their gay and lesbian fellow citizens to see their families gain legal recognition was in 2009, after Maine lawmakers approved a law that would have brought marriage equality to the state.

But anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) funded a full-frontal assault on family parity that led to the law's repeal by plebiscite before it could come into effect. The margin of defeat for gay and lesbian families was razor-thin -- 53% of the vote approved the law's repeal -- and given the rapidly increasing level of social acceptance of sexual minorities and their families, marriage equality advocates believe that the time is ripe to take the issue back to voters.

"We believe there's strong support for marriage in Maine," Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD)'s Matt McTighe said in June, when the announcement to revisit the issue was first made, Advocate.com recalled in an Aug. 17 posting.

Now that the measure's language has been approved and signature gatherers can begin collecting the requisite 57,000 signatures to place the measure before voters, marriage parity advocates remain optimistic. A political action committee, the Dirigo Family PAC, is set to launch canvassing and signature gathering efforts with a goal of collecting 80,000 signatures -- far more than the minimum, a press release posted at GLBT site Good As You reported on Aug. 17. Proponents of family equality anticipated that the lofty goal would easily be reached.

"As campaign volunteers fan out across the state to collect signatures from their fellow Mainers I expect they will encounter thousands of willing signers who have changed their hearts and minds on marriage after getting to know their gay and lesbian neighbors, co-workers and community members -- just as I have done," said Methodist minister Michael Gray, who joined five others to launch the new effort.

"We're excited for the signature gathering phase of this campaign to start and we're eager to start asking all of our friends and family in Maine to sign the petition," another originator of the new petition, Rita Clifford, said. The release noted that Clifford and her same-sex spouse have been together for nearly three decades.

"So many of our friends and neighbors have heard first-hand how important the responsibilities and commitment of marriage are to us and we know we'll get a lot of support from them and many other Mainers," added Clifford.

The initiative's timeline calls for the signatures to be submitted to the Secretary of State's office in January, where they will be certified, enabling the ballot initiative to go before voters in November of next year.

"If it qualifies for the 2012 ballot and is approved by voters, 'An Act to Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-Sex Couples and Protect Religious Freedom' would permit gay and lesbian couples to obtain licenses to legally marry in Maine," the media release noted. "It would not require churches to perform such marriages in violation of their religious teachings."

It was partly due to similar protections for faith traditions that disapprove of gays and their families that a similar law to grant state-level marriage quality cleared both the state assembly and the state senate in New York earlier this summer.

"The state is never going to go into a church and tell them who they can and can't marry," Pastor Gray was quoted as saying in the release.

But an Aug. 17 Bangor Daily News item noted that even though the proposed ballot initiative contains language to protect the interests of people of faith who condemn gays and reject their claim to legal equality, the same evangelical churches that supported the 2009 referendum -- as well as the Catholic Church, another major player in the denying Mainers marriage equality -- are expected to mount a vigorous an effort in opposition to the proposal.

In June, when the new ballot initiative was announced, the Catholic Church immediately began to register its disapproval.

"The people of Maine rejected same-sex marriage in November of 2009 and should not be put through what will likely be another divisive drawn-out campaign," Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland spokesperson Marc Mutty said, according to a July 1 Associated Press article.

"The people of this country have rejected same-sex marriage in all cases in which it has been put on the ballot," Mutty added. "There's no reason why we should expect a different outcome this time."

Currently, six states allow gays and lesbians to marry, but even so, no federal rights are available to same-sex couples thanks to an anti-gay law from 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies gay and lesbian families legal existence on the federal level. DOMA also permits states to treat the contract of civil marriage in a manner unique among all legal contracts: DOMA enables states to ignore marriages issued in other jurisdictions, despite the Constitution's "full faith and credit" clause, which requires that all states recognize and honor legal contracts entered into in any one state of the union.

But Advocate.com noted that NOM has already begun efforts to kill the measure, pouring money into Maine in an attempt to quash parity once again for families in that state. NOM was a major funding force in Maine in 2009, as it was the year before in California, where a ballot initiative, Proposition 8, was barely passed by voters after a bruising and bitter battle of public relations and bare-knuckle advertising.

NOM ran afoul of The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics & Election Practices by refusing to disclose their donor lists with respect to the anti-marriage push in that state in 2009, in violation of state law. The Commission "opened the probe into NOM's fundraising practices after Californians Against Hate filed a complaint [in] August [of 2009]," EDGE reported in a March 2, 2010 article.

"Californians Against Hate also sparked an ongoing California Fair Political Practices Commission investigation into contributions NOM and the Mormon Church made to the campaign that backed Proposition 8, the referendum that struck down marriage for same-sex couples in the Golden State in Nov. 2008," the article continued.

"The Maine commission denied petitions from NOM, its executive director Brian Brown and Stand for Marriage Maine on Thursday, Feb. 25, to drop subpoenas ordering them to produce the names and dollar amounts of those who contributed $100 or more.

"NOM, which did not have a representative at the hearing, maintained in a Feb. 11 letter to the commission from one of its attorneys that disclosing donor information 'could have a chilling effect' on its fundraising and Stand for Marriage Maine's 'ability to engage in effective campaign advocacy,' " the article added.

"Who are they trying to protect?" Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, demanded in a statement issued on Feb. 23, 2010. "Every other donor to Yes on Question 1 complied with the law, but NOM refuses."

Advocate.com noted that marriage proponents in Oregon are considering mounting a similar campaign in an attempt to legalize marriage there via the ballot.

Moreover, marriage parity supporters hope to see Minnesota voters categorically reject a ballot initiative slated to appear at the polls in that state on election day in 2012.

To date, voters in 31 states have chosen to deny gay and lesbian families legal marriage equality. But a recent poll suggests that the tide may be turning: For the first time, a slender majority of Americans has said that same-sex families should be granted the right to marry. Civil equality proponents hope that the poll results are mirrored at the ballot box next year.

"We changed hearts and minds during 'No on 1' [campaign], and since then, many more Mainers have changed their hearts and continue to change their minds," the head of Equality Maine, Betsy Smith, told Bay Windows in June.

"We have been going door to door talking to them and hearing their journey towards support," Smith continued. "In two separate polls conducted over the last five months, 53 percent of Mainers surveyed said they support letting gay and lesbian couples marry here."

And people of faith who stand for equality also feel that public opinion has shifted since the 2009 ballot initiative.

"As a pastor whose faith has been the guiding force throughout my adult life, I had a very traditional view of what marriage meant," Pastor Gray said. "But over time, as I met more gay and lesbian couples, including some who are active in my parish, I came to learn that gay people are no different from me.

"I now realize that the love and commitment in their relationships is as strong as the love and commitment my wife and I share, and I support their right to marry if they are lucky enough to find someone they love," Gray added.

Public officials who are also people of faith themselves have started to grasp how denial of legal equality impacts families headed by same-sex couples. They also understand what a change in perspective it is for those who have been taught by their spiritual leaders that gays are "sinners" whose families do not deserve the same protections, benefits, and obligations as heterosexual marriages.

"My wife and I can certainly relate to that since we've had to reconcile the teachings of our Catholic Church with our support for full equality for everyone," the Mayor of Lewiston, Laurent F. Gilbert, Sr., said last June. "I have faith in the people of Maine that they will do the right thing and support the freedom to marry."