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Loading ...Marriage bill to be filed in Maine
01.13.2009 2:46pm EST
(Augusta, Maine) A state senator flanked by LGBT rights leaders announced plans Tuesday to bring in legislation this session that would allow same-sex couples to marry.
Sen. Dennis S. Damon (D) said the legislation would amend existing laws defining partners of a marriage to be “the legally recognized union of two people.”He said the bill would eliminate discrimination in marriage licenses and would affirm that no religion would be forced to conduct a same-sex marriage.
The legislation, he said, also would recognize same-sex marriages from other states where they are legal.
Damon was joined at the new conference by leaders of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition, Equality Maine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and the Maine Women’s Lobby.
Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders is the Boston-based group that won equal marriage rights in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
It said last fall that it intended to fight for gay marriage rights in the other four New England states and predicted success by 2012.
Same-sex marriage bills already have been announced in Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
The chances of success in Maine are unclear at this stage.
In November, the leader of Maine’s Roman Catholics told churchgoers across the state they have a moral duty to oppose moves to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.
Following Damon’s announcement, the conservative Maine Marriage Alliance said it would press for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Shawn, are you from Maine? Maine is NOT one of the most backward states in the nation! It is more libertarian than conservative, and in the poorest county in the country where I own property, the rural, poor, hard working people FALL OVER each other to be friends with me and my partner.
Maine is an odd, little understood state. It truly is the “way” life should be. Neighbors care about each other, business supports the environment (since they live off of it) and with the many non traditional families (cousins etc.) that I know personally, there is very little judgementalism.
Rodney Moore is so correct, we have to call this Marriage Equality!
And we have to act. I called Heath Leadger of the ill named “Maine Civic League” and called him to the mat on his homophobia and obvious closet casedness. I really tried to corner him. I’m sure others did too, he recently announced he is OUT OF the anti-marriage equality debate.
I also called the Archdiosese of Portland’s Bishop and told him to stay out of politics or I would file a case with the IRS (in November, the open letter this piece refers to).
Now we have prop 8 and the scared Mormons..they all read the news. NOW IS THE TIME TO UP THE PRESSURE.
Everyone reading this needs to call the Catholic bigot in Portland and threaten him with the action we see against the Mormons. (legal non violent of course).
If they are scared enough, they will realize this is not the tithe-generator they wish it would be, and will move on to something else.
All the oposition is to generate donations..if they know if won’t work, and fear a backlash, we can win.
NOW GET ON THE PHONES!!!!!!
Marriage rights in MAINE?!? As long as the referendum procedure exists it ain’t evah gonna happin’!! Maine is among one of the most backward states in the union! I’ll be quite surprised if it passes the legislature to begin with.
looks like Maine may become the next state with gay marriage, I mean its democraticly controlled in the house and the member introducing the bill is a democrate, I would say this bill has a 70% chance of passing.
I hate to be a Buzz McKillington but it’s time for an injection of a political reality check here.
We’re getting too far ahead of ourselves, celebrating a victory before the battle has even begun.
We need to address a few things, a couple myths which keep our community chained to snail paced progress. First, we have too many people in our community who believe that gay rights are inevitable and that we should just sit back and wait for history to happen. Nothing is inevitable as far as gay equality and marriage equality, what we do RIGHT NOW is what will bring about change. Another issue is gradualism, those who embrace gradualism are nothing less than fence sitters. Patience is NOT a virtue when we’re fighting for our equal rights and the future success of our community. Anyone who espouses that we need more patience or gradualism is responsible for keeping our community in its current state of 3rd class citizenship. Will things take time? Sure, yes, change does take time, often more than necessary. But if we embrace waiting a century and take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism, it will be 2186 by the time we see real equality. Time is not our friend, demographics of our country can and do change. We could see a large influx of immigrants from non-western homophobic countries and we could see the tide shift. All we need to do is look at Holland and the emerging religious fanaticism emerging there, coming not from domestic Christian groups, but foreign Muslim ones. Time is NOT on our side, so we need to stop treating time as if it is an ally. And last but not least, language, words and ideas have intense impact. The use of the term “gay marriage” is detrimental to the cause for marriage equality. Why? Gay marriage has so many connotations attached to it. To gay people, gay marriage can include civil unions, domestic partnership etc. To straight people, especially those who are on the fence, when gay people exclaim that we support “gay marriage” it is far far easier for opponents to say that support for gay marriage is opposition to straight marriage. So please for the love of all things decent, stop using the term gay marriage, use marriage equality instead. It makes the point that we support marriage equality, not gay marriage vs traditional marriage and it also makes it clear that we support marriage, not some less than marriage institution(ie civil unions, domestic partnerships, civil partnerships, etc) which many have come to consider “gay marriage”. Marriage equality was won and secured in Canada, Spain, Quebec, Massachusetts and Connecticut because all the pro-marriage equality groups adopted language which left absolutely no confusion in the minds of the people. We didn’t use the term “gay marriage” we used marriage equality and won. Homophobic bigots have an easier job of convincing convinceable people that gay people want to destroy traditional marriage when we say we support “gay marriage”. However when we say marriage equality instead of “gay marriage” we counteract this false propaganda, because in the mind of those convinceable people we’re no longer trying to replace traditional marriage with gay marriage, but we’re fighting to make both equal.
Many of you think this is trivial, but language and terms have a STRONG impact on politics. Frank Lutz the GOP spinmeister extrodinaire got Fox News and the White House to stop using the term “Global Warming” and replaced it with the benign sounding “Climate Change”. This helped change popular perception on the issue of global warming from one of immediacy to one of “oh it’s just a cycle”. This was evil genius, because now that the term “climate change” is being used, noone thinks there is an imminent environmental catastrophe.
So instead of giving ammunition to our enemies by insisting on the use of “gay marriage”. Which conjures in the minds of middle of the road heterosexuals an image of gay marriage proponents banning traditional marriage. We should use the politically and popularly effective term “marriage equality”.
gay marriage could pass in New Jersey this year, Vermont as well as Maine may both see gay marriage bills get introduced this year, Rhode Island will lose its antigay marriage GOP gov in 2010 and the 3 frontrunners wanting his job are all pro-gay marriage candidates.
Work needs to be done in New Hampshire to get that state ready for gay marriage.
There may be a chance of a civil unions bill being offered sometime in Delaware not that it will get passed any time soon and Maryland may see gay marriage in about 5 years if it can keep an antigay constitutional amendment likely to be offered by MD Delagate Don Dwyer this year again “at bay”. Hopefully he will be defeated in the next round of MD elections, he got back in on a margin of only 25 votes for his current term a couple of years ago so I am very hopeful that next time he will be voted out in a couple more years if that is when our next MD election for just our statehouse Delagates, Representatives and state senators in Annapolis (MD’s capital city)will be held.
I must say that it is highly encouraging when some of the oldest members of this United States are working to fulfill the promise of America that they fought and paid for with their blood.
I don’t imagine that this bill has any chance of passing within the next year, but it getting introduced is a good thing, because it allows the legislature to build momentum towards its passage over the next few years.
Bills like this don’t usually pass the first time their introduced. Most likely, it will die in committee for the first couple of years, then eventually pass the committee but not get scheduled for a full vote, and eventually come to a full vote and pass. In the meantime, the electorate can get more and more used to the idea, and legislatures who are supportive but afraid of the political cost can see that their colleagues who are supportive of the effort are getting re-elected.
Good for Maine. Now, let’s see a equal marriage bill introduced in congress, so we can start building support for it there, too!
We’re taking baby steps but we’re getting there. It’ll all come ,a little at a time.
Yes,it would be nice to just get everything all at once,but we ARE getting somewhere! Think back just a few years and
look how far we’ve come.
Patience really is a virtue!
This is such a joy to read. My personal prediction is coming true. I’m so elated. This gives me a future choice in where I want to live and establish a life. However, I would like to see more rights happening especially within the workplace and living places and adoption agencies and in retirement communities for LGBTQI people.
I agree with K. Perry. I live in Mass. and can’t wait for EVERY state to come to their senses and allow gay marriage.
I’m sorry about Cal. and the ridiculous way
they put OUR lives to a damn vote.
Sit tight America,WE WILL PREVAIL!
I am hoping that my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Maine do not have to go through the same angst that we in California have been going through. Keep the faith.
Norway gay marriage going into effect this year never once made headlines on 365gay.com. Editor in chief is at least aware of the gay marriage effort in Maine.
I am hoping against hope that my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Maine do not have to go through all of the angst that we in California have had to go through. I am proud of you all. Keep the faith
What is DISGUSTING is that the CIVIL RITES OF A MINORITY are being put up to a POPULAR VOTE by the MAJORITY! F*CK the Catholic Church – a bunch of f’d up weirdos if every there was one!!!
Wow, am I proud of my home state.
I left Maine in 1975 to live on the buckle of the Bible belt. I remain proud of Maine’s independent, progressive politics.
You guys are so far ahead of Texas, it hurts!