Maine’s governor signed a freshly passed bill Wednesday approving gay marriage, making it the fifth state to approve the practice and moving New England closer to allowing it throughout the region.
New Hampshire legislators were also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor, who hasn’t indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, Rhode Island would be the region’s sole holdout.
The Maine Senate voted 21-13, with one absent, for a bill that authorizes marriage between any two people rather than between one man and one woman, as state law currently allows. The House had passed the bill Tuesday.
Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, who hadn’t previously indicated how he would handle the bill, signed it shortly afterward. In the past, he said he opposed gay marriage but supported civil unions, which provide many benefits of marriage.
Debate was brief. Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, turned the gavel over to an openly gay member, Sen. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, to preside over the final vote.
Despite the temporary loss of California, this has been a good year for same-sex marriage equality. I swiped the “end the exclusion” title language from Freedom To Marry; that seems like a good way to put it.
UPDATE: As David reminds us, there is probably going to be a ballot fight over this — but maybe it’s one we can win.
UPDATE 2: The current message on the front page of the Maine Family Policy Council:
Maine’s Legislature will eliminate civil marriage by the end of May. We have started a People’s Veto. Please pray that God will intervene. He is our best hope. God has not forgotten about Maine. Even though things seem grim He may yet be gracious toward us. Senator Dennis Damon wants to eliminate Maine’s Defense of Marriage Act. It was created by referendum in 1997. 60,000 Mainers signed petitions demanding that Marriage be protected. Now, 186 politicians in Augusta want to ignore the will of the people … again. Maine people twice rejected “gay” rights in the past decade. Homosexuality is very sad, and sinful. Maine must not create a culture that winks at something so debilitating on so many levels. To present this “orientation” as benign to impressionable children is the height of arrogance, and surely qualifies as evil.
Big political win for anyone who gets out in front of this issue before it’s in the rear view mirror. I’m lookin at you, President Obama.
Maine’s governor is the first governor ever to sign one of these, I think.
Great news!
Really? Shit!
Shit shit shit.
Imagine if we had gone around taking bets? “I’ll wager even money that the first governor to sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage comes from a state that’s so conservative, they’ve got not one, but two Republican Senators. Any takers?”
We’d be a friggin’ millionaires, baby. But too late; now this is all over the news, so we’re screwed. Shit.
Well … ok, no use crying over spilled milk. I’m sure there’s a silver lining here somewhere….
Jodi Rell signed the gay marriage bill in CT. But that was after the courts had ruled in favor of marriage. She had also signed the civil unions bill. (And she is a Republican). Baldacci is the first governor to sign a bill that was passed by the legislature without a prior court decision. But it’s still a huge step.
I think I might be looking forward to the People’s Veto. Certainly nervous that the people might reject the bill, but if they don’t then the opposition will have a hard time arguing that the “will of the people” was in any way violated. (oh, they’ll argue it still, I have no doubt, but reasonable people will see through all the handwaving they will have to do). It will be a huge moral (and morale) victory. Regardless, a second state to legislatively enact marriage equality is a wonderful, beautiful thing.
The best part of the Family Policy Council’s site is actually their poll:
Can Homosexuals commit adultery and fornication:
-No, because God says that marriage is between a man and woman only.
-Yes, because the state gets to define marriage.
-I don’t know. The whole issue just confuses me.
I cannot figure out what the purpose of that poll is, other than to use ‘homosexual’, ‘adultery’, and ‘fornication’ in the same sentence.
I wonder if this will finally be the instance of sufficiently-democratic decision-making in the state recognition of same-sex marriage: no courts involved, no prior instance of court-imposed civil unions, no DOMA being voided… just a state looking at its neighboring “laboratories of experimentation” and realizing that same-sex marriage is beneficial.
Then again, conservatives lately seem to be clinging to the idea that it doesn’t really count as the democratic will of the people unless it passes through a referendum. We’re no longer a republic, we’re an Athenian-style democracy!
Please pray that God will intervene. He is our best hope.
I propose that they stop wasting their time with the people’s veto thing and devote all of their energy to prayer.
Oops, looks from the update like I was factually wrong — there is a DOMA being voided here. Ah well, I guess New Hampshire can be first after all…
Hopefully this lasts and doesn’t get shot down later. I can’t understand why a straight person would ever give a shit about whether gay people can marry or not – WTF does it matter? It’s not like it negatively effects their lives in any way. Sigh…
LOL!