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Maine Conservatives, Advocates Make Final Push For Gay Marriage Referendum
October 26, 2009 9:46 a.m. EST
Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Augusta, ME (AHN) - Maine is holding its last week of early voting ahead of a Nov. 3 referendum on whether to repeal a new law allowing same-sex marriages in the state. The last days of the campaign comes on the heels of a state attorney general report that the law would not change how marriage is taught to young school children, a report conservatives have dismissed as a "political stunt."
Maine became the fifth state to allow same-sex marriages after Gov. John Baldacci signed legislation, LD 1020, in May despite his previous opposition to gay marriages. In August, a coalition that supports traditional marriage, Stand for Marriage Maine, successfully petitioned for a referendum on the law.
Voters have been casting early ballot since last week, the same time Maine Attorney General Janet Mills issued an opinion saying the new law would not negatively impact education because school boards "determine the exact content of each district's curricula," and have the responsibility to address concerns from parents and students' religious beliefs.
Stand for Marriage Maine had criticized Mills playing politics. Citing previous statements by the attorney general in support of same-sex legislation, the group said, "The opinion poses a position that our campaign does not advocate - that LD 1020 affirmatively changes the curricula to require instruction on gay marriage. Our position is that no change to Maine's curricula is necessary in order for homosexual marriage to be taught in our schools... We have demonstrated how it could be taught in schools, and that it HAS been taught in other states that have legalized gay marriage."
The fight in Maine has been reflective of the larger battle nationwide. Stand for Marriage Maine raised $1.4 million in only 20 days this month, with most of the money coming from National Organization for Marriage.
On the other hand, Protect Maine Equality disclosed raising $4 million in its latest financial report, an amount reached with the help of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group. Equality California, which is leading efforts to repeal a ban on gay marriages in the Garden State, has also been helping advocates in Maine through phone banks.
California held a similar referendum last year, when an initiative, Proposition 8, passed and overturned a state Supreme Court ruling that said gay couples had a constitutional right to be married. Equality California is working to repeal the ban in same-sex marriages in the state in the 2012 elections.
A total of six states now allow same-sex marriages, four of which adopted their statutes in this year. Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriages, sued the federal government in July over the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which provides the federal definition of marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman. The District of Columbia has also began recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries.
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