some great allies we have in Maine.....

[FLAprogressive]

this is a state Obama won by double fucking digits and we can't get enough people to come out and vote for marriage equality? A big "fuck you" goes to 53% of Mainers and the the fundie groups who lied their way into winning this.

[jonnyblitz]

1. well , they came out in droves for Obama and against gay

marriage in California as well in November 2008.

[FLAprogressive]

2. this is what happens when Democrats wait til after the election to support gay rights

[Jennicut]

3. Maine is not exactly the most liberal of New England states.

I am from CT and have been there a many times since I was a kid. Very rural but not progressive like Vermont. And nothing like Mass and CT which allow gay marriage.
Maine and NH have both always been a bit more conservative and while I don't mind visiting them on vacations I prefer to live in CT.

[Divine Discontent]

4. I felt that, too, when I went on a long vacation there.

yes, there are areas where it feels like New England, but most of it is, well, not. It's got two Republican senators, so it's certainly moderately liberal only at best. Sadly, people who voted for pot didn't feel the need to allow other people the right to have their love validated with legal protections.

We will not stop fighting everywhere. The more people here the stories, the more they can relate to understanding how important equal rights are.

[gaspee]

5. Understatement, LOL!

My family is from Caribou and they are pretty conservative in the rural north - the urban south of New England is much more liberal - I live in RI and it's moderate/liberal -- I think this is a rural vs urban/suburban thing.

[Jennicut]

6. True but Vermont is quite rural and way more progressive.

Not sure what it is but when I get in the woods of Maine I feel less comfortable then in my homestate. Isn't logging big up there too? Some big difference there.

[jonnyblitz]

8. I am from a small town an hour northwest of Bangor, ME,

probably about 8 hours or so from where we are here in CT and I AGREE with you. I am sure my little shit hometown overwhelmingly voted against gay marriage without even checking the breakdown. thankfully my parents voted NO.

[Jennicut]

14. Yeah, I like to visit Maine and it is beautiful but I feel more relaxed here.

I live up in small little Terryville, right next to Bristol and near Route 8. Chris Murphy was elected twice here as our Rep. I really like it here.

I grew up in Cheshire which is more near Hamden, Waterbury, Meriden. Too expensive to live there now and used to be more conservative but it did go for Obama in 2008. My parents are conservatives but live in a bubble in Cheshire and think crime from Waterbury or wherever will ruin their town. The Petit murders there kind of rocked everyone two years ago and made people even more paranoid. I prefer to visit only occasionally.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. May I show this post to my wife?

I've been trying to convince her for the last 20 years that we should have stayed in Middletown, CT. I know that I was a lot happier there than I am here in Central PA.

Going from CT. to here is a mind altering experience. You know the old saying that PA. is Pittsburgh in the west and Philadelphia in the east with Alabama in the middle? This is the part of PA. that people refer to as Alabama in the middle.

The level of outright hatred that was directed at my oldest brother during his life for being gay bordered on sickening in this area. It wasn't perfect, but Ct. was a lot more accepting of all types of people than this hellhole.

[Jennicut]

15. I love Middletown! One of my favorite towns in CT, actually.

They have Vecchitto's Italian Ice there, Kid City (kids museum) there, and Harbor Park, where my husband played many shows with his band over the years.
I have been to PA but only to Philly and West Chester as my neighbors moved there when I was a kid and we stayed in touch and visited alot over the years.
I am from Cheshire originally though I prefer other towns to it. I live in Terryville now. I can't see myself moving and my husband has worked for CT Light and Power for 10 years.

Hang in there, you will always be a Nutmegger at heart! And just think, you could have Stestak or Specter as Senator and both would be better then Lieberman in my opinion. Even old Specter seems less conservative.

I have had many gay friends here and CT does seem very accepting, at least in the under 50 crowd.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

16. Harbor Park was great (when it wasn't under water).

I loved how close everything was to Middletown.

My job in Meriden was only about 7 or 8 miles away.
The old Sport & Leisure Club in Wallingford was another few miles.
Portland and its' golf courses was just across the river.
I used to get to play golf at Pine Valley right near ESPN and that was only about 20 miles.
Hartford was only a few miles away.
Gillette Castle was just a few miles down river.

Even when we went to Mystic or Westerly RI it wasn't very far. Although the weekend traffic made it seem like 200 miles at times.
Boy I miss that state. We haven't been back there since we left in Sept. of 89. Next year, I'm going to make it back there even if I have to go by myself.

[Jennicut]

18. You need to come back! Gillette Castle...been there a few times.

And I live about 15 minutes away from the ESPN Headquarters.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

21. Just to make sure that I give myself the proper incentive, this is my desktop.

?clip

The best thing was that if you liked Italian food, you got authentic Italian food and not some Olive Garden version of it. I still remember going into the Country Market which is on the right side of the picture. They sponsored our softball team for a few years since their son was on our team. They had never met me but I was practically adopted on the spot since I was friends with their son. They wouldn't let me leave until I ate something (for free) even though we just stopped to get something to drink. Some of the nicest people that you could ever want to meet.
OK, Now I'm getting depressed just thinking about the place.

Nice picture of the waterfront with Harbor Park in the center:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Middletown_CT_river_skyline.JPG?clip

[TheWraith]

17. Truth. Don't forget they have Snowe and Collins, and they were razor close in 2004.

Maine is really the most conservative part of New England.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

20. Northern/rural Maine is like Alabama in its politics--completely redneck and racist.

Portland, our largest city, went 75-25 NO on question 1; many other southern locales went at least 60-30 NO, and my hometown in the south, one of the most populated centers in the state and known for being relatively conservative compared to other locales of its size, went 54-46 NO, I believe, which is a triumph for that town, really. The south is growing more progressive by the day. It's the rural/northern parts that are the problem.

[peacefreak]

9. Please don't paint Mainers with a broad brush.

there are many of us that DID vote no & are very upset by this vote.

[Not Me]

10. What is the likelihood that the state legislature might pass

another similar law, and keep doing so until the population gets it?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

19. Over years, this will probably happen.

Remember that question 1 is different from prop 8 in that it does not even remotely touch the state's constitution. The question is a people's veto, a striking down of a specific piece of legislation, and that piece of legislation only. The same-sex marriage law passed in May of 2009 was vetoed and no longer holds; Maine law reverts to what it was in April of 2009 on all other points. There is no untangling of a constitution to deal with, no repeals to worry about. The legislature can indeed keep passing laws until the population finally gives up, and I expect that this will happen. Unfortunately, it will be over the course of years, not months, and you can bet that those who proposed this legislation will wait for a new political climate before trying again (I personally think the political climate here will swing back to the right before it comes left again, so we may be waiting on the order of many years, not just one or two, but that's more instinct than anything I've seen in hard numbers). Also, I don't think Maine citizens can amend their own constitution like they can in CA anyway; all constitutional changes are done via the legislature, which is currently more liberal by far than the average Mainer (as this election shows).

To give context, there IS a precedent for just this sort of thing happening in this state. In 1998 (I believe; not entirely sure of years) the Maine legislature made sexual orientation a protected class, and a people's veto killed that piece of legislation. It took several rounds of passing and vetoing, passing and vetoing, before the legislation finally "stuck," so to speak, in 2005, when another No on 1 campaign (interestingly enough) was victorious over the people's veto and sexual orientation became a protected class, just like race, gender, etc.

I know several people (young people like myself, tragically) who supported question 1. Their reasoning was that marriage to them is sacred (I'm merely reporting what they say--their arguments are, of course, patently ABSURD). They are not anti-gay, particularly, as I can personally vouch, in the sense that they actively hate homosexuals; there ARE indeed people in this state, mostly in the north and all other rural areas, who would probably shoot any homosexuals they came upon, and these people I know are not those people. They're not even outwardly religious (we have relatively few evangelicals here). But they just can't untangle religion from civics, religious marriage from the concept of civil marriage. I think this tangling has to end for a real breakthrough to happen in terms of popular opinion on marriage, specifically, not domestic partnerships or any other legal relationships, to change. How we should change it, I don't know. I do think that this sort of thing should not even be up for a vote in the first place; it's patently ridiculous to vote on civil rights. The problem of course is that the other side does not see it as a matter of civil rights, just a matter of terminology (specifically the use of "marriage") and a base misunderstanding of what it really means to be gay (the whole choice v. genetics thing) and how important marriage is and how domestic partnerships do NOT suffice.

Sorry for the rambling...just opinions from a highly frustrated no on 1 voter. Hopefully it will give some insight into Maine law and the election process, and if it's erroneous, please let me know so I can correct it.

[jonnyblitz]

11. I am from ME and I expected this outcome to be honest,. nt

[MineralMan]

12. The majority should never be allowed to decide anything having

to do with the rights of anyone. That's the great flaw in this whole business. Until it is impossible for people to deny the rights of GLBT people, there is a great inequity in this country.

[Deep13]

13. Thanks, you bone-headed woodchucks for giving me a reason...

...to be ashamed of my native New England. Morons.