The breaking news of the afternoon is that Governor John Baldacci of Maine signed the bill legalizing same-sex marriages in that state only one hour after the bill came to his desk today. Yesterday, the Maine House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 89-57, but it was unclear if Baldacci would sign it, since he has expressed opposition to similar legislation in the past. The expectation was that he would leave the bill unsigned and let it take force of law on its own, rather than indicate his personal support.
His comments at the signing acknowledge the strong likelihood that opponents of the measure, which include the Roman Catholic Church (as usual) and a group called the Maine Family Policy Council (you typical fundie freakshow fascist crowd), would be able to generate enough signatures to send the law to referendum in November. Maine laws allows any legislation to be overturned by a simple majority of voters in a statewide election. In the past, Mainers have used this “people’s veto” to overturn other legislation.
Popular opinion in Maine is pretty equally divided about gay marriage — 50% against, 47% for, 3% undecided — so there’s no guarantee that sending the law to referendum will overturn it, but Maine is the third New England state to legalize gay marriage and the fourth in the United States. Vermont will legalize same-sex marriage when a state supreme court decision goes into effect in September, and New Hampshire is very close to passing a bill as well, so it is possible that by November, five of the six New England states will have legal same-sex marriages (Rhode Island will likely not pass any bill until after the 2010 election). That could have a lot of impact on the outcome of a “people’s veto” in a state that has been on a liberal trend for the last few years.
It’s worth noting that here in Massachusetts we are coming up on the fifth anniversary of legalizing same-sex marriages, and so far there have been no reported meltdowns of anyone’s heterosexual marriage as a result, no people trying to marry monkeys, dogs, or turtles, and no widespread round-up of small children to be taken to gay re-education camps. If the Christians don’t want to allow same-sex couples to marry within their churches, that’s their business, but their bigotry and inhumanity does not belong in public law.
