Marriage (and Other LGBT) Equality in Maine
We’re not at all sorry we passed through to lend our support to the No on One campaign. We met amazing, dedicated people who stopped their lives to devote everything they had to ensuring equality for all Mainers–whether they lived in the state or not.
And I still don’t believe that’s how a majority of Mainers feel–it’s just the majority of voters in the 2009 election who feel that way. Who want to deny their neighbors the rights they have. Who believe them to be not worthy of the rights and protections they enjoy simply because of who they love. Who want to make the children of same-sex couples suffer. These are the children most directly affected by marriage equality, make no mistake about it.
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The Morning After the 2009 Election
It’s too early to say for sure, but it looks like the first ever win for a pro-gay initiative on a state ballot. And it’s our state, Washington, that will claim it. The voter-approved law, Senate Bill 5688, will change Washington’s definition of spouse–in every law in which it appears–to include registered domestic partners. For that reason, it’s nicknamed the “everything-but-marriage” law.
We don’t know for sure, though, because too many ballots are still pending. Washington became an all-vote-by-mail state this year, and ballots had to be postmarked, not received, by November 3.
Dawn also finds us at status quo for same-sex marriage on the ballot. Maine, where the results are essentially final, saw a “Yes” answer for Question 1, the challenge to their legislature- and governor-approved law granting same-sex couples marriage rights. That means the law allowing people like us to marry will never take effect.
Read moreElection Fever: Maine and Washington State Referendum Watch
Here at our hotel room in Auburn, Alabama, it’s quiet except for the sound of the TV. My wife and daughter are napping.
In Alabama, Ami would be considered my roommate. My “friend.” And that would probably be how the nice people described our relationship. We’ve left the Promised Land, and it’s a long way to California.
Read moreThis Week in LGBT Activism
On Wednesday President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard & David Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. It was buried in a defense spending bill that had wide Republican support, and in this way found its way to the president’s desk after ten years of advocacy. Yesterday Obama lifted the HIV travel and immigration ban that barred positive individuals from visiting or immigrating to the U.S. And he reauthorized the Ryan White Care Act–having worked for an HIV/AIDS organization in the past, I know how critical these funds are to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Read moreA Paradigm Shift for Marriage
You know, I wasn’t always a big gay. For more than half of my life so far, I did not self-identify as queer.
In fact, the number of years I’ve had to think about marriage are about three to one the number of years I’ve had to think about queerness. I’ve encountered marriage as a child, as a teen, as a straight-by-default, as a closeted queer, as an out queer, as a married queer, as a Lutheran, as a Mormon, and as a person with enough Comparative Religion credits to need several paragraphs to express their spiritual perspective.
So I was very surprised to learn something about marriage while volunteering for the “No on 1″ campaign in Maine.
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