Maine Legis. passes Marriage Equality, other Marriage News

[Duckie]

It's worse for anti-gay marriage advocates in Maine.
AP

Opponents challenging new Maine gay marriage law

By GLENN ADAMS – 7 hours ago

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Couples anxious to wed under Maine's new gay marriage law may have a long wait. A formal challenge to it has been filed, setting into motion plans for a possible public vote that could be months or more than a year away.

"We're very disappointed," said Steve Ryan of Buxton, who was looking forward to the new law with his partner, Jim Bishop. "We plan to get married as soon as we can. This is going to put our whole life on hold."

Activists on both sides Thursday started working up strategies for campaigns leading up to a possible November referendum under a state constitutional provision known as the people's veto.

"The wheels are turning," Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, Maine's chief election official, said after opponents filed an application that sets the stage for the challenge process ahead.

The deadline for opponents to collect at least 55,087 signatures will probably fall in mid-September, about the time the gay marriage law is due to take effect.

However, the law would be stayed as soon as the signatures are submitted for review by election officials. And the timing of when petitions are turned in will determine whether the referendum can be scheduled for this November or June 2010.

Marc Mutty of the Roman Catholic Diocese said challengers expect to get the go-ahead by May 21 to begin collecting signatures to get a referendum on the bill, which was signed Wednesday by Gov. John Baldacci.

Baldacci's action preceded by only hours a vote by the New Hampshire Legislature that sanctioned gay marriage in that neighboring state, but Gov. John Lynch has not decided whether he'll sign the bill.

The phone in Lynch's reception room rang constantly Thursday with callers either pleading for him to sign the bill or veto it.

Lynch's spokesman, Colin Manning, said the bill was being reviewed before being sent to the governor's office. Once it arrives, Lynch will have five days to sign it, veto it or decide to let it become law without his signature.

In Maine, Mutty said he expects canvassing in shopping centers, churches and neighborhoods, although the details aren't worked out.

"I expect a number of interests to come forward, including a number of national interests," said Mutty, who is leading the campaign with Bob Emrich, founder of the Maine Jeremiah Project, a church-based public policy group.

The National Association of Marriage Enhancement — which helped drive successful referendums in Arizona, California and Florida to pass laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman — said it is looking for ways to help out.

But supporters of Maine's new law aren't sitting quietly and said plan their own campaign focusing on personal contact with friends, neighbors and relatives.

"Now that it is the law of the state of Maine, we will protect that law," said Betsy Smith of EqualityMaine. Smith said fundraising will be a challenge given the economic climate, adding, "It's disappointing we would need to raise a lot of money to protect a law in Maine."

Once the state approves the wording on petitions seeking repeal of the law, the petitions will be circulated so voter signatures can be collected. The state constitution requires at least 10 percent of the number of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

If AP is right here, they need 467 signatures a day every day from May 21 to September 14 (the day Marriage Equality becomes the law of the land in may). That's doable, but it's worse than the 125 a day I estimated before. I wouldn't be shocked if it were insurmountable, even if I'm pretty sure they'll manage due to a financial blitz (they got 5,000 signatures on an 800 dollar budget last year)

If they can't get that Veto through, they can move to a 2010 repeal signature thing, of course.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Well, now that the benchmark for those signatures are higher, perhaps EqualityMaine will have a good chance of successfully counteracting their drive. The anti-gay marriage folks know that time is ticking and it's certainly not on their side.

And in California:

Group Renews Fight for Same-Sex Marriage in California

SAN FRANCISCO — As the California Supreme Court mulls the fate of a 2008 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage, one of the state’s largest gay rights groups is laying the groundwork for a campaign to overturn the measure, perhaps as soon as next year.

The announcement by the group, Equality California, comes almost a year after the court’s initial decision to legalize same-sex marriage, a ruling that voters negated in November when they passed the ballot measure, Proposition 8. The proposition has since been challenged in court, but gay rights advocates worry the court will uphold it, and are preparing for the next stage of the fight.

“We’re hoping the court rules the right way, but we’re not counting on it,” said Marc Solomon, Equality California’s newly hired marriage director. “And we believe that 2010 is the right time to go back to the ballot.”

The possibility of a ballot measure to overturn Proposition 8 has been floated online and elsewhere since the election, but the announcement is a concrete signal that California might soon be embroiled in another electoral fight over same-sex marriage. The November campaign ranked as one of the most divisive and expensive ballot measure fights ever, with the two sides spending more than $80 million combined.

Opponents of same-sex marriage said a second campaign would be a mistake. “The fact is that the people of California have already spoken,” said Brian S. Brown, the executive director in National Organization for Marriage, in Princeton, N.J. “And they don’t like being told they were wrong the first time.”

Mr. Solomon, who came to California after several years of working on behalf of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize such unions, in 2004, stopped short of announcing of a formal campaign to put the issue on the California ballot, which would require an extensive signature-gathering effort.

But his group appeared to be ramping up. It announced a statewide advertising campaign starting Monday, which will feature gay and lesbian couples talking about marriage. The group also said it would open outreach offices in conservative parts of the state in coming weeks — including Orange County, the Central Valley and the so-called Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles — where voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 8. (An outreach office is also planned for San Francisco, one of the state’s most liberal enclaves.)

The group also expects to begin canvassing neighborhoods as soon as this weekend, using an on-the-ground approach to elicit voters’ views about same-sex marriage and try to sway opponents, an approach that worked well for the opposite side in the November election. “You can call it taking a page from their playbook,” Mr. Solomon said. “I’d prefer to call it taking a page from the playbook we used in the Northeast.”

California advocates of same-sex marriage have been astonished at recent developments on the East Coast, including in Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill on Wednesday legalizing same-sex marriage in the state, though Mr. Brown said opponents would pursue a public referendum to overturn the law before it becomes official. Even so, Maine joined a roster of states that have legalized gay marriage in recent months, including Iowa and Vermont. Connecticut began allowing same-sex marriages last fall.

All of which has supporters here feeling cautiously optimistic, even those for whom the Proposition 8 victory still stings.

“Usually we measure social change on controversial issues on, at a minimum, years, and more often, generations,” said Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who served on the “No on 8” executive committee. “On this issue, we’re measuring it by days.”

The court has several more weeks to decide on Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote. But critical lines of questioning from several judges during oral arguments in March seemed to suggest that the measure would be upheld.

Frank Schubert, a spokesman for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind Proposition 8, said he had expected that the measure would eventually be challenged at the ballot box but was surprised that it could come so soon. “But,” he said, “if they think it’s right for them, we’ll meet them on the field of battle.”

While Mr. Schubert said the recession might cause fund-raising problems for both sides, he noted that anti-Proposition 8 protests after the election and recent support for same-sex marriage elsewhere had generated enthusiasm among Californians in the opposing camp.

“There is this sense of activism that has arisen from folks that were not in their campaign in the fall,” he said of the “No on 8” camp. “And I’m sure they want to capitalize on that while passions are high.”

I remember Duchess mentioning that it will take 10 to 20 years to undo Prop 8. I certainly hope to look forward to the day that we prove her wrong. (And I'm sure she does as well )

PS: These two ads were aired today.

[Mayabird]

Update from the great Pacific Northwest: some of you may remember that the Washington legislature passed an everything-but-the-actual-m-word bill (domestic partnerships getting all the legal benefits of marriage but not the name marriage) but may have noticed that it hasn't been signed into law yet. Apparently, Gov. Gregoire is waiting until the very last minute to sign it because the legal challenges and petitioning to repeal it by referendum can't actually start until she signs it, and yes, the challengers are all ready to go but being forced to sit on their hands and fret.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

GOOD NEWS!

New Hampshire Set to Approve Same-Sex Marriage

BOSTON — Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire said Thursday that he would sign the state’s same-sex marriage bill if it was amended to further protect opponents of such unions from having to take part in ceremonies celebrating them.

Legislative leaders indicated they would allow the changes, making it all but certain that New Hampshire will become the sixth state to allow marriage between gay couples.

“New Hampshire’s great tradition has always been to come down on the side of individual liberties and protections,” Mr. Lynch, a Democrat, said in a statement. “But following that tradition means we must act to protect both the liberty of same-sex couples and religious liberty.”

In its current form, the bill exempts clergy members from having to perform same-sex weddings.

The amendment proposed by Mr. Lynch goes further, exempting any “religious organization, association, or society,” as well as individuals or nonprofit groups working with or for such an organization, from having to participate.

Vermont and Connecticut used similar language in their same-sex marriage bills.

[sketerpot]

They're honestly afraid that they might be rounded up and forced to attend a gay wedding or something?

[Androsphinx]

They're honestly afraid that they might be rounded up and forced to attend a gay wedding or something?

More like churches being sued for refusing to allow gay marriages in their buildings.