The Christian Civic League is campaigning to convince voters that if the gay rights bill just passed by the Legislature is allowed to stand the next step will be gay marriage in Maine.
“That’s the only thing that matters,” said Michael Heath, director of the Christian Civic League, about his organization’s goal of “proving to the people of Maine that this whole debate has now come to what we said it was going to do, which is gay marriage.”
The league is organizing a petition drive calling for a people’s veto of the anti-discrimination law passed last week in the Legislature. It has until June 29 to collect 50,000 signatures in order to put the veto of the new law on the November ballot.
The law – signed last Thursday by Gov. John Baldacci – adds “sexual orientation” to the classes covered by the Maine Human Rights Act. State law already prohibits discrimination based on a person’s race, age, gender, religion or disability when it comes to employment, credit, housing, education and public accommodations.
Even supporters of the bill were so worried about the public tying the anti-discrimination legislation to gay marriage, they amended it to read: “This act may not be construed to create, add, alter or abolish any right to marry that may exist under the constitution of the United States, the constitution of Maine or the laws of this state.” The amendment passed 122 to 28; the final bill passed 91-58 in the House and 25-10 in the Senate.
Betsy Smith, director of Equality Maine whose group campaigned for the anti-discrimination legislation, said, “This is a non-discrimination bill. It’s about protecting gay and lesbian people from discrimination. He’s the one who’s making it about gay marriage.”
Still she concedes the outcome of the November vote – a vote most people expect is coming – will depend on “who’s able to frame the debate better; who’s more successful at getting their message out there.”
Smith’s organization does support gay marriage, but she says that’s not the point.
“We’re not talking about marriage discrimination. It’s not that we don’t care…that’s just not the issue,” she said.
Smith said Heath has changed his strategy since the last referendum on gay rights to ride the national wave of sentiment against gay marriage.
“It’s interesting because the last couple of campaigns we’ve run, Michael Heath said it’s about special rights. We’ve said all along it’s about non-discrimination. He’s the one who’s making it about gay marriage. He’s the one that’s all over the place.” A similar anti-discrimination proposal has twice been defeated at the polls, most recently in 2000.
Heath admits he’s benefiting from the national anti-gay-marriage movement that was galvanized by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing gay marriage there. In last November’s election, just six months after the Massachusetts’ ruling, 11 states approved constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
“I think they’re task is getting more difficult,” said Heath of Equality Maine’s push to pass the gay rights law. “If they couldn’t persuade the people of Maine when the marriage issue was somewhat obscured in the public mind, what makes someone think they’re gong to use the same argument now?”
Heath’s argument is “there’s no way to elevate sexual orientation to a human or civil right without putting in jeopardy marriage as an institution.” It was that argument, Heath said, that led the Massachusetts’ court to decide a ban on gay marriage violated the state’s constitution.
Even if the Christian Civic League is successful at turning over the law in November, Heath said he won’t stop there. He plans to start gathering signatures in July to put a referendum on next year’s ballot to specifically ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. He said his organization also will weigh in on the 2006 gubernatorial and legislative races.
The league already has organized the Coalition for Marriage as its campaign arm and last week members rallied at the Statehouse, vowing to raise $2 million to overturn the anti-discrimination law.
Equality Maine is still organizing its campaign to defeat the veto, but vows a strong fight.
“We will raise whatever we need to win,” said Patricia Peard, an attorney with Bernstein Shur in Portland, who is on the anti-discrimination campaign steering committee. She said their campaign would be launched within a week or 10 days.
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