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National Implications In Maine Marriage Battle

10/26/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
“Initially, I had the opinion for several years that civil unions were the limitations of what I was willing to support. But, the research that I did uncovered that a civil union didn’t equal a civil marriage,” Governor John Baldacci of Maine told CNN. In a very short time, voters in Maine will go to the polls to either uphold or veto a law signed by Baldacci six months ago granting civil marriage rights to gays and lesbians within the state of Maine. The voter veto was placed on the ballot by a group of people largely funded by the National Organization for Marriage and the Roman Catholic Church, and the campaign that has followed has been all but exclusively funded by those two institutions with 91% of the Yes on 1 campaign’s donation being from those two specifically.

The Yes on 1 campaign has struggled to craft a message devoid of religion since Maine, like Vermont, is rather less religious than many other states in the country. Unfortunately, all the arguments that they have come up with have tended to be contradictory and often are based in religion anyway. With the majority of the instate funding coming from the Roman Catholic Church, the religious aspect of this legislation is undeniable except to those who are trying to hide it. Supposedly allowing same-sex couples to marry would strip the word of its meaning, but the reality is that marriage has been more about love than about procreation for the last half century.

How the vote goes will have an impact upon the national battle for marriage rights. If the law is upheld, then the constant refrain of how the laws should be taken to the voters will likely die since the expectation of a victory with the voters would no longer be valid. If the law is overturned, then it will likely mean a prolonged battle with every attempt to extend equality being forced before the voters until either the United States Congress or the United State Supreme Court puts an end to the piecemeal battle.