While BeckySharper had the occasion to report some good follow-up news, I have the distinct displeasure to follow up on yesterday’s elections. Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey are bad enough, but the real blow–at least to me and mine–is that Maine, which six months ago passed a same-sex marriage legislation through its Congress and had it signed by the formerly-bigoted Governor Baldacci, has now killed that legislation (and their progressive bona fides) through a popular vote.
ABC reports that 53% of voters came out against marriage equality, and now Maine is the 31st state to outlaw marriage for same-sex couples.
Goddammit, Maine, you’re going to make me sound, if only for a moment, like a crazy FoxNews commentator here talking about “the founding documents of this nation,” but for the love of lobsters, they clearly state that all citizens are created equal and merit equal treatment under the law (not the church). There is no “except if a majority decides that a group of them don’t” clause. That legal equality is a matter for public debate is just a total mindfuck to me: that ain’t what democracy is about.
The few Mainers I know were on the correct side of this issue, but the religious hatemongers apparently knew how to scare people into voting in greater numbers. And every single one of those assholes deserves a big old kick in the crotch for their “some animals are more equal that others” bullshit.
If we have any locals among our readers, I’d appreciate whatever info you can share about how it looked on the ground, and what might happen now. Is this issue dead in the water, or are there remedies? Can the government override the vote, pursue new legislation, or is it now a matter for the courts?
Yeah, it totally blows. Although it looks as though domestic partnership benefits will be approved in Washington, and the Dem won in NY-23 against Palin and Beck’s best efforts.
But still, here’s a scary image from WA: http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2009/11/03/1257312153-picture_3.jpg
The green is where people voted to expand domestic partnership benefits, the yellow is against the expansion. Basically, Seattle and environs voted in favor, everywhere else voted against. Every election that goes by, I get more and more firm in my resolve to never live anywhere with a low population density.
The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right. –Alexander Hamilton
I don’t have much faith in putting this issue to the will of the voters anymore. Frankly, if we’d put segregation or anti-miscegenation laws to a popular vote in the 1960s, they would have been upheld by a wide margin.
Time for the courts to hash this one out, I think.
I don’t even understand why these things are allowed to be put up for popular vote! It doesn’t make any sense.
Ugh, this just ruined my morning.
Becky, I wish I had any faith whatsoever that the courts would come to a different decision, but I don’t. NY’s highest court has already ruled that NY law doesn’t permit same-sex marriage and there is no consitutional right to it. Thirty states have constitutional amendments banning it.
There are several anti-DOMA cases winding their way through the federal courts, but unless Kennedy goes out on a limb, SCOTUS isn’t going to help out either.
I’m incredibly discouraged right now.
Can we please get some “judicial activism” back in the mix? Please? Between Prop H8 and now this, not to mention the Arkansas referendum that banned gays and single parents from adopting, I am despairing of the tolerance of far too many poll-goers.
Also, I am now going to try and incorporate “for the love of lobsters” into a discussion at least once a day.
Civil rights should not be left to the people – if we could trust them to make sound decisions re civil rights then civil rights wouldn’t be an issue (if that makes sense).
I live in Portland, and I can tell you that every person that I know voted No on 1. In Cumberland County, the most urbanized area in Maine, the vote was 61% in favor of not repealing the same-sex marriage law. It was the northern counties, which are more rural and conservative, where the majority of people voted in favor of repealing.
I can’t say what the voter outreach looked like in those areas, but the No on 1 campaign workers in the Portland area worked tirelessly and without the financial support of big, national organizations.
The television ads in favor of repealing the same-sex marriage ads were ludricous, focusing on the idea that “homosexual marriage will be taught in schools.” To me, they didn’t even make any sense.
I don’t know where the state can go from here. Is the people’s referendum the last word? I am so sad and disheartened.
I totally get what you’re saying veggiewood and I agree!
I think I’m going to have to kill my neighbours for voting in McDonnell in Virginia. GOP swept the ticket, including rabidly anti-choice, anti-equality Cuccinelli for for A-G. He’s going to try to roll back some shit post-haste. And now they won’t get a public option (McDonnell vowed to opt-out if possible). Well, I won’t really kill them. But I’ll quietly begrudge them.
And then I’m going to throw my lot in with the folks across the river in DC, who might just might be passing a marriage-equality law this year.
That’s about what I expected, lindsayweir. Doesn’t make it any less disheartening.
And veggiewood, that’s exactly it. Exactly. I’ll be stealing that sentiment, thankyouverymuch.
How utterly depressing. I join the chorus of calls for good old fashioned judicial activism.
And can I just say that the Facebook group “Against gay marriage? Then don’t get one and shut the fuck up” hits the nail right on the head? I don’t know what people think will happen when gay marriage becomes legal, do they think teh gayz will force them to join the club, or what.
veggiewood – that makes perfect sense.
There is a federal case scheduled to be heard in January, in California I think. Perhaps we can finally get some 14th amendment action going on here.
@baraqiel, I grew up in Washington (Vancouver, really a suburb of Portland, OR) and I’m completely unsurprised by those results. Saddened, yes – but not surprised.
I did think that Clark County would maybe go green, as it’s home to a lot of people who work in Portland but live in WA to save on property taxes and house prices. But then again, rural Clark County is pretty conservative – as are many of the rich suburbanites.
Most people think of WA, OR, and CA as far-left ultra-liberal states, and that is true for some small, isolated urban areas (Seattle and suburbs in WA, Portland and Eugene in OR, San Francisco and suburbs in CA). But once you get out of those urban areas? Scary! Eugene/Springfield, OR, is a perfect example. Eugene is one of the most liberal cities I’ve ever encountered (home of the (in)famous OR Country Fair, which was still clothing optional until sometime in the late 80s/early 90s IIRC). But Springfield is home to Lon Mabon and the Oregon Citizens Alliance, who has been trying to pass laws discriminating against and even actively classifying homosexuals as pedophiles since the early 90s.
You get outside of the cities, and you’re in logging, ranching, and farming country – and the mentality is far more similar to Northern Idaho, say, than to Seattle. Back in the day it wasn’t at all uncommon to see signs and t-shirts advertising “Cream of Spotted Owl soup” in the windows of good, upstanding establishments on Main Street in rural small towns.
@baraqiel, I think that’s a pattern you’ll see in any urban/suburban area.
I’m standing (well, sitting) here and telling you all that same-sex marriage is coming, and it’s coming soon and to stay. The churches can spend every last penny to fight it, but it won’t work. Keep your heads up, harpies and harpy fans-we’ve got the power and the momentum. And the right knows it. They may have today, but we’ve got tomorrow.
Soon, and in our day. Amen, selah.
A few more thoughts (yeah, I’m pissed off):
Every single donor to these campaigns should be publicized, especially the corporate ones.
The day that the Supreme Court equated money with free speech was the day that democracy in this country became available only to the highest bidder.
I agree that it’s probably time to put same sex marriage in the courts where it belongs as a civil rights issue. but if we’re going to use the referendum strategy, it’s suicidal to do it one state at a time. That allows the haters to put all their money and effort into one locale. Let’s bring it to a national or regional vote and make them work at it.
I’m sorry to say that Michael Heath, hater-in-charge, is not done in Maine:
http://maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/pets02/prosexorient.htm
Michael Heath is crazy. He blamed the potato blight in Washington County on teh gayz.
Myself, as an out bi woman, at the age of 62 I moved into the ‘gay’ area of town this past February. It was too hard to be continuing to live in areas where there were so few OUT LGBTs manifesting themselves openly e.g. holding hands with their patners in public, kissing publicly, wearing LGBT t-shirts/etc. And of course, now for me it’s so much better to be able to patronize openly LGBT businesses and services – in one’s own neighborhood, and actively to help that neighborhood expand. As much as I prefer the wild country and the beauty of Nature, I do not dare to live out in the country anymore. Horribly, out in the wild areas there are way too many chances of being caught somewhere isolated – and be tortured and murdered like Matthew Shepard was. This whole f*cking country is headed for a new Inquisition and the Dark Ages are closing in, unless a lot more straights stand in unity with us LGBTs and a lot more LGBTs find the courage to come OUT. It’s a terribly crappy time – and it’s not going to be easy or simple to change that – but we MUST do our utmost, not only for ourselves, but for the safety and quality of life of LGBT and straight kids everywhere. STAND UP AND JOIN THE FIGHT FOR LOVE AND JUSTICE!