Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Repeal May Cost Maine’s Catholic Church Its Tax Status

It has been alleged that the Roman Catholic Diocese in Maine is violating the IRS tax exempt status by gathering signatures for an attempt to repeal Maine’s same-sex marriage law. The Empowering Spirits Foundation has filed for an investigation into the Catholic Church’s gathering of signatures in the current ballot petition. The Catholic Church is adamant about putting an end to the bill, and is supporting the attempt to put this to a voter veto in the upcoming election.

Maine became the fifth state to legalize marriage equality in the country, and the second to do so via the legislative process after Vermont. New Hampshire’s bill is currently hung up over wording. California attempted to pass a marriage equality bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Diocese believes that it is not breaking their IRS tax status by gathering signature for the ballot measure; however, because they are doing this in the name of the Catholic Church, they may, indeed, be violating their status. One lawyer stated that the Church may be violating their status as a non-profit because, in gathering these signature under their name, they could be attempting to influence the future vote on this issue.

Meanwhile, marriage equality advocates celebrated their victory today by thanking the legislature for their efforts to make marriage between all individuals a reality.

The fate of the ballot measure is relatively murky. Maine is already teetering on the edge of having a majority favor same-sex marriage, and the state already has civil unions. The attempt to get a similar measure on the ballot to repeal civil unions failed to reach the threshold of signatures necessary to get it before the voters.