Maine's Gay marriage law added to ballot

[question everything]

Source: Chicago Trribune

The governor of Maine has signed a formal proclamation putting the state's gay marriage law up for a vote in November. Gov. John Baldacci signed the measure Wednesday after election officials verified that gay marriage foes had reached the threshold of signatures necessary to put the law on the ballot. The gay marriage law was supposed to go into effect this month, but it was put on hold while the secretary of state's office validated the number of signatures.

Gay marriage opponents needed the signatures of at least 55,087 registered voters for the so-called People's Veto, and they turned in nearly 100,000 signatures. In May, Maine became the fifth state to allow gay marriage.

"I fully support this legislation ... but I also have a constitutional obligation to set the date for the election once the secretary of state has certified that enough signatures have been submitted," Baldacci said.




Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-briefs-0902-09030sep03,0,3814748.story

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I heard the story on NPR. There were "concerns" that 7 year old kids will be taught about "gay sex."

Also that the Main Diocese contributed. Are they allowed to do so?

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. A potential problem...

...and I just got off the phone with a nice young fellow from EqualityMaine explaining this, is that to save the law, you have to vote 'No' on the referendum.

Voting 'Yes' is a vote for a veto, which is potentially troubling, since most people consider vetoes as negative, prohibitive acts.

I hope the old Yankee spirit of "I don't give a good Goddamn what you do, so long as you don't do it in public and scare the horses" isn't dead yet.

[question everything]

3. You will have to come with a catch phrase

I was involved in a couple of ballot measures back in California where we had to vote YES to prevent putting a mega airport in the middle of a densely populated area. Many of the voters were seniors who were yelling at us that we were trying to confuse them that, in order to prevent the airport they had to vote NO.

They will have to come with something like: Vote NO on... Measure 5 (for example) to keep civil rights.

On the other hand, many of the reactionaries may vote NO as saying NO to gay marriage..

[WestSeattle2]

2. What a waste of time. For those who are so concerned

about what their neighbors do in bed, get a life. Gay marriage is inevitable, get over it.