Article on July 10th meeting:

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/810396.shtml

Activists seek state backing of gay rights
By ELBERT AULL, Kennebec Journal
Sunday, July 11, 2004

AUGUSTA -- As Congress this week considers a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, activists are readying themselves for a pair of related, imminent battles in Maine.

Lawmakers here over the past three months have stated publicly that they will address the issue of gay marriage during the next legislative session, and activists who gathered in Augusta on Saturday said they are bent on convincing what they called the "middle 30 percent" of Mainers -- those who
aren't strongly for or against a proposal to eliminate the state's standing ban on gay marriage -- to pressure their legislators to support gay marriage.

At the heart of this campaign, probably, will be personal pleas from gay and lesbian couples to the middle 30 percent, as the activists who attended Saturday's meeting said they think that group of citizens will have the most influence over legislators next session.

"It's more important for my sister, who is straight, to call" legislators about gay-marriage issues, said Pam McCann, program coordinator for the Portland-based organization Speakout.

McCann joined 11 other representatives from social activist organizations throughout Maine at Saturday's planning meeting, where they discussed strategies they hope will influence middle Mainers to side with them in what promises to be a highly-visible and potentially divisive battle over gay marriage in Maine during the next legislative session.

"This is a really fertile time to engage people," said Louise Roback, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. "The human stories are very important."

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, said in late May that he will enter legislation to overturn the state's existing defense-of-marriage laws. His statement followed an announcement by Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, that he would seek an amendment to the state's Constitution banning gay marriage.
(The current laws prohibiting gay marriage in Maine are not written into the state's Constitution.)

While lawmakers squabble about gay marriage, Gov. John Baldacci is pressing for a law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Activists at the gathering said they are convinced fence-riding Mainers who hear personal stories from gays seeking a civil-rights law and the elimination of the state's defense-of-marriage statute will fall on their side.

Many said the best way to press their case is through a highly visible, consistent campaign.

"Americans like feistiness," said Tom Sturdevant of Maine Veterans for Peace. "You've got to be in their faces."

The group's main fear Saturday was that those who oppose the proposals will frame the imminent debate as a religious struggle instead of a debate about civil rights.

Lucie Bauer, a Speakout volunteer who had to cancel her wedding plans with her longtime partner after Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney invoked a 1913 law to bar out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts, said she was encouraged by a unscientific poll she conducted in Auburn during the June 8 primary.

The poll of about 500 showed that an overwhelming majority of voters in Auburn -- considered a conservative hotbed by many -- would support Baldacci's plan, while a smaller majority would support the eradication of Maine's defense of marriage laws, Bauer said.

Elbert Aull -- 623-3811, Ext. 433 or eaull@centralmaine.com