There are 13 days left until Election Day. If you had been in the No on 1 campaign office today, you would have known that. You might have noticed the big sign on the back wall that is changed every day to remind you of the imminence of your job. You might have called a volunteer to ask them to spend some time canvassing or at the office in the coming days.

You might have been worried. Yesterday (14 days out) there was a poll published [pdf of press release] that said that 48% of Mainers were for Question 1 (boo), 48% against, and 4% undecided. I’m sure somebody has a calculation on what it takes to get a percentage point of the population to vote your way. How much money. How many volunteer hours. What kind of weather on Election Day.

Situations like this make me strongly question if voting by the general population should decide single issues. Maybe the electorate as a whole should just stay home, and we’ll flip a coin instead.

Heads: Mainers are able to take medical leave to care for their partners or their partners’ children. More people will be able to afford health insurance. Many children who wouldn’t have before will have two legal parents to care for them.

Heads: Maybe one gay or lesbian teenager in Maine, hearing the decision that marriage is now a possibility for him or her, feels a surge of self worth, of possibility, and makes the choice to stick around.

Heads: Maine same-sex couples will file federal taxes separately. They will be denied Social Security benefits if their partners die. They will pay federal taxes on property inherited from their spouses. They will not be able to have a family business as far as taxes are concerned. They will pay taxes on “gifts” from one spouse to another. If their (closeted) service member spouses die, they will not get any veteran benefits.

Heads: Most Mainers–the straight ones–will get up on Wednesday November 4th, married or not, eat breakfast and head out for work or school. Their lives will not have changed. Their marriages will not have changed. Like 92% of Iowans, they will likely feel that there has been no change in their lives. In five years they will probably feel, like 74% of Massachusetts voters [see p. 5], that marriage equality has strengthened society.

Heads: There will be dancing, hand-holding, and lots and lots of weddings.

Tails: We will be back next year. And the next. In Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, and Wisconsin. In your SCOTUS. In front of your house.

Tails: Love is on our side. God is on our side. Tails: You still lose.

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