Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

Stakes are high in Maine’s vote on gay marriage

PORTLAND, Maine | Bolstered by out-of-state money and volunteers, both sides jockeyed Monday to boost turnout for Maine’s referendum on same-sex marriage — a contest that could give gay-rights activists in the U.S. their first such victory at the ballot box.

The state’s voters will decide today whether to repeal a gay-marriage bill signed into law in May by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

The contest is considered too close to call, and both campaigns worked vigorously — with rallies, phone calls, e-mails and ads — to be sure their supporters cast votes in the off-year election.

If voters uphold the law, it will be the first time the electorate in any state has endorsed marital rights for same-sex couples, energizing activists nationwide and deflating a longstanding conservative argument that gay marriage lacks popular support.

Conversely, a repeal — in New England, the corner of the country most receptive to same-sex marriage — would be a jolting setback for the gay-rights movement and mark the first time voters overturned a gay-marriage law enacted by a legislature. When Californians voters rejected gay marriage a year ago, it was in response to a court ruling, not legislation.

Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire have legalized same-sex marriage. But all did so via legislation or court rulings, not through a popular vote. By contrast, constitutional amendments banning gay marriage have been approved in all 30 states where they have reached the ballot.

Both sides on the issue have attracted volunteers and money from out of state, but the financial advantage went to the side defending same-sex marriage, Protect Maine Equality. It raised $4 million, compared with $2.5 million collected by Stand for Marriage Maine, which forced the repeal vote through a petition drive.

“The eyes of the nation will be on Maine,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “The stakes are high, but so is our hope that Maine will remain among the growing number of states that extend the essential security and legal protections of marriage to all loving, committed couples.”

Marc Mutty, on leave from a job with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland to run the Stand for Marriage campaign, said in a home-stretch appeal for donations that the election “is about the future of marriage in Maine and thus the nation.”

“It is about whether marriage will continue to be between one man and one woman as God intended and human history has affirmed, or if we will plunge our state into a radical social experiment of ‘any two will do,’ ” he said.

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