Maine Gay-Rights Groups Submit 105,000 Names to Back Marriage Referendum

Gay-marriage advocates in Maine (STOME1) submitted almost twice the names needed to get a referendum to legalize the practice on November’s ballot, three years after voters rejected a similar measure.

A coalition of supporters led by EqualityMaine delivered more than 105,000 signatures to the secretary of state for verification today, Betsy Smith, the Portland-based group’s executive director, said in a statement.

“The number of signatures we gathered and the thoughtful conversations we’ve been having with voters tell us that Mainers are eager to speak on this question again,” said Smith, who gathered with allies at the state house in Augusta. “Our polling shows a 54 percent majority of support for same-sex marriage in Maine. Many Mainers have changed their minds and want a chance to bring equality and fairness to our state.”

Maine voters would be the first in the U.S. to give same- sex partners the right to wed. Court rulings or legislation led to the change in six states and the District of Columbia. Voters have rejected legalization in all 31 referendums on the issue, according to Freedom to Marry, a New York-based national advocacy organization.

National Debate

At least five other states are tackling the issue this year. New Jersey Democrats are pushing a bill to legalize gay vows in the face of a veto threat from Governor Chris Christie. The Republican governor said yesterday that a referendum is an “alternative path” to resolving the issue there.

Lawmakers in Washington and Maryland are also pushing legalization bills, while voters in North Carolina and Minnesota will be asked to bar the practice through constitutional amendments.

Maine voters will spurn legalization again, said Bob Emrich, who helped lead the 2009 campaign.

“The only people who will benefit will be the people who sell advertising,” Emrich said in a telephone interview from Plymouth, where he’s a pastor at Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church. He’s regrouping his coalition, he said.

Maine’s proposed initiative would ask voters: “Do you favor a law allowing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, and that protects religious freedom by ensuring that no religion or clergy be required to perform such a marriage in violation of their religious beliefs?”

In 2009, voters turned down 53 percent to 47 percent a law permitting the practice that was championed by Democratic lawmakers and signed by then-Governor John Baldacci, also a Democrat.

In 2010, Republicans won control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office for the first time since 1966.

To contact the reporter on this story: Esmé E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

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