As Kansas goes, so goes Maine.

[bluedigger]

That attempt to legalize discrimination against gays in Kansas is also happening in Maine. LD 1428 "An Act to Preserve Religious Freedom" has been introduced.

http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=SP0514&item=1&snum=126



eta: Contact info for the sponsoring legislators.

a. Sen David Burns of Washington [phone] [e-mail]
b. Rep Jeffrey Timberlake of Turner [phone] [e-mail]
c. Senator Andre Cushing of Penobscot [phone] [e-mail]
d. Senator Garrett Mason of Androscoggin [phone] [e-mail]
e. Senator Roger Sherman of Aroostook [phone] [e-mail]
f. Rep Dale Crafts of Lisbon [phone] [e-mail]
g. Rep Paul Davis of Sangerville [phone] [e-mail]
h. Rep Denise Harlow of Portland [phone] [e-mail]
i. Rep Michael McClellan of Raymond [phone] [e-mail]
j. Rep Beth Turner of Burlington [phone] [e-mail]

[MuseRider]

1. Good luck.

Get your ducks in a row and start screaming about this. Contact every paper and media outlet you can. We had interviews on CNN and Al Jazeera America and all local media was right in there. The people in our state would have none of this and if Kansas would have none of this I would wager you have a good reason to be optimistic in Maine.

Statewide organization for LGBT? If you are not a member or your friends are not members become members and help them fight this. You can beat this. Good luck, I will be watching and I will also write those legislators. Coming fresh from the fiasco in Kansas it might mean something.

[bluedigger]

2. Grew up there, but no longer a resident.

Thanks for the encouragement, though. Just trying to help get some wider attention on this, as I just learned of it this morning on FB.

[MuseRider]

4. Good for you!

We all need that kind of help when this kind of bill comes up. For us it came up and they rammed it through as fast as they could, there was no time to really prepare much. I think we could have come closer to stopping it before the House voted if we had had the time to lobby the committee. We did have enough to get the Senate to not even consider it partly because people like you who did not live here but ran with the story.

When I get home I will write to those legislators. I have to write thank you to the House legislators here who voted against it so I may as well just write a few more

[Bandit]

3. My religion says all Republicans are evil, so I should be able to discriminate against them

On Religious Grounds.

[KamaAina]

5. Is ALEC rearing its ugly head?

[cali]

6. I think your comparison and alarm are more than a wee bit off. Marriage equality is the law

in Maine and that law is not going to be repealed.

Maine may have that asswipe governor LePage, but he only got in because the vote was split by a dem and an independent.

Maine is not Kansas. It doesn't follow Kansas and it won't enact this anti-gay legislation.

[MuseRider]

8. Kansas did not enact it either.

These RFRA bills are coming from a National source, organized elsewhere I suspect. All the crap we see that moves from state to state is like that.

To another poster, I do not believe this is ALEC or the Chamber of Commerce in Kansas would not have come out so strongly against it.

[bluedigger]

9. I doubt it will go anywhere, either.

But I'll be dammed if I'm just going to passively wait for that to happen. Silence is consent. That's why I told the customer that told me a racist Obama joke at the register Sunday to get his ass out my door. I could care less if I lose my job over it, it was the right thing to do.

[cali]

10. hey, I'm not suggesting that anyone remain silent

I'm saying that your implied comparison isn't apt.

[MuseRider]

11. Any state legislature that introduces bills like this

can very aptly be associated. Why not? Bigotry is bigotry no matter where in the country you live. Is bigotry just nicer when it comes from the NE?

Yes it was an apt comparison.

[cali]

12. no, because Maine and Kansas have very different cultures

no, comparing Maine and Kansas isn't a good comparison.

NH actually has more conservative elements and tendencies than Maine.


Maine approved marriage equality by popular vote. that's a huge cultural difference. I trust you're not going to claim that that is even a remote possibility in Kansas.

gad.

[MuseRider]

15. Bigotry is bigotry is bigotry

the legislature of BOTH states introduced this. The legislature made up of people who were elected by the citizens. Both states have introduced if not the same bill, one that is similar. You cannot deny that. You can't possibly be suggesting that a bill like this is somehow less bad than the bill when it is introduced another part of the country?

I don't give a rats ass about their culture. We all have different ideas, feelings and culture. So what? Their culture, that you suggest is so much better than other states cultures, has introduced this bill that is condoning discrimination. No matter what their culture is that is what has happened in BOTH states.

By the way, I don't think you have a clue what is going on in Kansas. I never suggest anything unless I know what I am talking about. Sitting in the middle of this I see change happening and it would be a good thing if some of you paid some attention to what others are doing. I wager with my involvement in this state I have racked up more hours and knowledge how to work these things than a whole lot of people who want to tell me what could happen in my state. I also wager I know a whole lot more about the overall trend in my state. I am assuming nothing about Maine. They introduced the bill but somehow it isn't as bad there as it is here? No comparison? How interesting.


Bigotry in any state is bigotry. People who suggest otherwise are a real problem. So your bigotry smells better up there?

[cali]

17. OK, you win. Maine is just lke Kansas. No difference at all. because that is what

YOU are claiming. Oh, and yes I do have a clue about Kansas- clearly far more of a clue than you about Maine. Have you ever even been to New England? Not only have I spent some time in Kansas. I actually keep up. and yes, I'm suggesting that the political culture of New England is preferable to the political culture of Kansas and Indiana. I'm suggesting that my state of vermont has protections for LGBT folks that are only a dream in Kansas- and has had those protections for 25 years. that's right, 25 years. I'm not just talking marriage equality, I'm talking adoption, public accommodation, etc.

culture is what it's all about. the culture of a place is the nature of said place.


and yeah, I think your powers of observation are eluding you here.

[MuseRider]

21. Because that is EXACTLY what I said.

It is an apt comparison of the issue. I never said the cultures were the same.

BIGOTRY is not any different when introduced in the NE or the South or the Midwest or in Canada or in the Caribbean. That is ALL I said until you started in with your comparisons of the culture.

Oh and by the way, this old hayseed has traveled the world so please don't assume I have never been off the farm, or to New England. I have relatives in Vermont, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey and have been there numerous times and once I even visited Maine but it was a short visit so perhaps that does not count. I also have all my own teeth and drive something other than a truck with balls. Could you possibly be a more offensive representative of your area?

We were not talking about Vermont although it is a beautiful state full of beautiful people, some of whom I am really fond of.

Don't blow any gaskets here. I really do not want to fight about this. I love all of our country, even the red states because there are good people and bad people in ALL states but I will never ever ever let anyone tell me or try to make the point that bigotry introduced in a state in the NE is any better than bigotry introduced in a Midwest Red state. I will never let anyone get by with trying to paint me as some toothless sodbuster either. Really cali, that is just beneath you.

And yes I am touchy about this. We just fought a very very hard fight here and we have many more. You think Kansas is bad? You don't have a clue how bad it could be if it were not for me and others here who work tirelessly to stop this crap. I wager if the Koch brothers were housed in your state things would be different there too. It was not always this way here. Do you have any clue what it is like to fight this? Jesus. Discrimination does not stop at the region or the state borders. Will Maine pass this? I would think not because even here in Dumbfuckistan we did not pass it. It does not matter, it was introduced in both states and will show up in others. It stinks wherever it shows up.

[bluedigger]

16. What part of it isn't apt?

Nearly identical legislation introduced in both Houses. Maybe it won't get the votes in Maine to go on to the Senate (I hope) but the differences aren't that great between the two states - it only takes a few percentage points to swing the electorate. As someone who is no stranger to rabble rousing with provocative headlines, I find your continued objection puzzling and disappointing.

[B Calm]

7. Fascism will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible

[joeybee12]

13. This doesn't stand a chance, though, does it? nt

[bluedigger]

14. One would hope not, joeybee12.

I'm just trying to help make the cockroaches run for cover.

[joeybee12]

19. They're scurrying!

[cali]

18. not a shred of a chance. it's posturing. Maine attained marriage equality by a vote of the people

[joeybee12]

20. Yup, they gotta get their brain-dead base riled up for 2014...

the idiots.