Out In The Mountains : News - Maine Defeats Anti-Gay Referendum

       Augusta, ME – In a rare bright spot in gay and lesbian ballot issues, Maine voters turned down a referendum backed by conservative Christian groups that would have repealed an anti-discrimination measure that had already passed the legislature and been signed into law.
       The November vote was the fourth lgbt equality-related referendum in the past 8 years. The margin was reported in the Gay City News as 45 percent for the referendum, leaving 55 percent as voting against.
       "Today's win proves that dogged, grassroots organizing can overcome the lies and smears of anti-gay zealots and the profound unfairness of having minority rights put up for a popular vote," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "After the marriage amendment losses we've experienced over the last 12 months, this is a much-needed victory for our national movement — it proves we can win statewide contests. Every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender American is deeply indebted to the staff and volunteers of Maine Won't Discriminate, and to the people of Maine for embracing fairness and rejecting bigotry."
       Cited by other sources as also having worked for the victory was Equality Maine.
        GLAD, NGLTF, and HRC all issued press releases touting their contributions to the win. Each group invested funds and expertise in grassroots organizing against the measure. MassEquality, the pro-marriage equality organizing group in the Bay State, organized phone banks among its supporters to call Maine residents to remind them to vote.
       Because the last two contests in Maine were so close (the measure in 2000 lost by less than 5,000 votes), voter identification and get-out-the-vote work was considered crucial. Starting in 2003, Equality Maine began an ambitious program to identify pro-LGBT voters through door-to-door canvassing in Portland, according to a press release from NGLTF.
       Supporters of the repeal measure focused their campaign on gay marriage, even though the law to be repealed does not mention marriage. Other tactics linked the anti-discrimination law to "pedophiles" teaching in schools.
        Ron Bilancia, a member of Maine Won't Discriminate (see "The Way Life Should Be... Almost," OITM October, 2005), sent a victory message to the Christian Civic League's Michael Heath, who led the support for the defeated repeal referendum: "[A]dmit that your resounding 10-point defeat in Tuesday's Maine vote on Question #1 could have been nothing other than God's will," he urged. "[T]he people of Maine will not stand for intolerance cloaked in religion nor the systematic discrimination of ANY of their children.... Now ALL Mainers will have the very protection from discrimination that you as church members have enjoyed while at the same time working to deny it to others. I can only hope you have now seen God and Jesus' will for what it really is."