My partner and I voted early, and we voted YES on Question 1 here in Maine. It's a no-brainer question, really, and very simply worded on the ballot:
"Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?"
Maryland, Minnesota and Washington State have ballot questions too and Minnesota's vote is on an amendment to the State Constitution to ban "gay marriage". Tonight, Maine is poised to become the first state where the voters have legalized same-sex marriage--just three years after the same voters rejected a bill passed by the legislature creating marriage equality. Tonight, voters in Maine will pass a bill which will--besides returning marriage equality to the Pine Tree State--remove one of the most popular rallying cries of those who oppose our civil rights: that in no state have voters approved marriage equality when it has come up for a vote.
More over the fold...
Marriage equality may seem like a small time issue what with the state of the economy (better every day for the rich, stagnant and worsening for the rest of us), the continuing reluctance of banks to lend especially for mortgages, ever-increasing evidence of the ramifications of the damage we have done and continue to do to our environment, endless and un-winable war and any number of other things which face us after tonight's elections. But it's not. It's important because it is about human beings and their relationships with one another. Their personal relationships. Their legal relationships to one another, and to one another's estates. It's important because it's about our civil rights--not just the civil rights of LGBT persons and those of the people who love them--but about where the nation is on civil rights as a whole. States like Maine have the opportunity tonight to tell the nation and the world that until every last one of us is free, we all remain in bondage to bigotry and institutionalized hate. Do these two Mainers look scary enough to be denied the right to marry?
commonmass and GreenMountainBoy02
How about these two Mainers? Are these two Eagle Scouts going to threaten your heterosexual marriage?
Bill in Portland Maine and Common Sense Mainer
If you live in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota or Washington State and you haven't voted yet, please vote for equality and against the constitutional amendment (MN). Tell your friends. Let's make this a banner year for civil rights and equality for all persons. GMB02 and I are planning our wedding. That's something I never thought I would ever be able to do. Help us make it a reality. Vote Yes on Question 1. Vote Yes to civil rights for all persons.