Maine voters will decide whether to repeal a recently passed law legalizing unions between people of the same gender.

One year ago California’s Proposition 8 was passed by voters; it overturned the law allowing same-sex marriages.

Maine enacted the same-sex marriage law in May in a bill signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

Whatever the result, it will be close. Voters could repeal that law by supporting Question 1 on Tuesday, making Maine the latest state to take away gay marriages.

Advocates of same-sex marriage are optimistic that ballot box history won’t repeat itself in Maine. Having learned the lessons of their loss in California, they say, the No on One campaign could break their seemingly endless series of defeats in popular elections.

“We walked into this fight in a much better position than we have in other parts of the country. This is something that I think the people of Maine have had the opportunity to get used to — all of their neighboring states have had marriage equality for a while now,” said Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.

In California, gay-marriage supporters were surprised by the intensity of organized support for Proposition 8 and underestimated the impact of television ads warning voters that legalizing gay unions could change the way children are taught about marriage in schools.

This year, Maine-based activists focused their efforts early on making an emotional pitch with ads and speeches featuring gay families talking about what marriage means to them.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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