UPDATE: By a comfortable margin, voters in Maine rejected same-sex marriage. Marriage equality has now lost in 31 states where it was put to a popular votes, but organizers held out hope that the traditionally open minded and libertarian state would be different, a hope that for the time being is dashed. Five other states–Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Iowa–have legalized same-sex marriage, and plenty of LGBT folks will now be steering their travel dollars away from Maine since there is now no shortage of great options.
Volunteers are pouring into Maine to reinforce locals in the fight against the Nov. 3 ballot measure that would strip the state’s citizens of marriage equality. Tony Giampetruzzi, the creator of the GayCities guide to lovely Portland, ME, and a resident of the city, sent this dispatch from the battleground.
Viewing the television ads released by No on 1, the Maine campaign to defeat an effort to overturn the state’s recent gay marriage law, you’d think that the state’s tourism bureau lent their own PR professionals to their noble effort.
The most dramatic of the series features aerial views of the Maine coastline, quaint New England villages, and a mélange of Yankees talking about equality and fairness – straight families, gay families, laborers and fishermen, including one fellow with an “ayuh” accent so thick that it almost seems contrived.
The “no” campaign seized upon this strategy early on, and has managed to own it: the Mainer’s vaunted sense of place, Yankee hospitality, the live and let live mantra and simply doing the right thing.
Will this emotional tactic work? With the campaign deadlocked in polls, there’s no telling, but it’s nice to see a message that puts gay equality squarely on the side of the local ethos and values, something campaigns in other states have not managed.
Mainers go to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of gay marriage in the state – or, more accurately, marriage equality, the term that helps to soften the rhetoric and frame the debate. Victory is critical. It is not just that a loss would be devastating to us here in the state. A win would mark the first time that voters anywhere in the nation will have decided the issue at the polls–in our favor, in equality’s favor.
There’s also a pragmatic reason to defeat the initiative. Maine is Vacationland that lives up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful and romantic states in the country. In truth, the tourism bureau would have been well-advised to get behind the effort for marriage equality not only because it will fill hospitality coffers with pinkbacks. It will anchor Maine’s rightly place as one of the leading destinations for gays and lesbians brave enough to tie-the-knot.
