Maine's Gay Group
Governor of Maine, John Elias Baldacci signed to legalize same-sex marriages. Maine is now the second state, after Vermont, to make gay marriage legal. Anti-gay activists, as well as religious zealots and Mormon groups, use one main motive against gay marriage (apart from the zillions of others which are highly subjective and limited) is that this decision to be up to the people, through their elected representatives. As all can see, in Vermont and now Maine the elected representatives have legalized gay marriage.
Gov. John Baldaci
In case you are wondering, John Elias Baldacci (born January 30, 1955) is an American politician who has served as the Governor of the U.S. state of Maine since 2003. A Democrat, he also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. Also, Baldacci is a Roman Catholic. Also, Baldacci is a supporter of regionalization, a sometimes contentious policy of merging local-government services to save money on administrative costs. While Baldacci has had some success with regionalizing local government, it has often come under fire from rural lawmakers who view the process as weakening their communities.
In the past, Gov. Baldacci had opposed same-sex marriage. But, today he supported marriage equality. Most consider this a good decision, an the timing is quite beneficial for the popularity of Maine as a state.
A group that needs to be thanked by the gay community and gay marriage supporters as well is EqualityMaine – click for webpage.
Even if legally this decision to make gay marriage accepted through the legislative process is installed, Maine has a referendum process that allows voters to overturn legislation. This might sound as a deja-vu for some: in 2005, Baldacci introduced legislation to expand Maine’s civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. This legislation in Maine had been defeated via referendum by voters two times before. The law passed, but opponents of the law initiated a referendum to overturn the law. Voters upheld the new law.
His latest statements at the time below:
“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”
“While the good and just people of Maine may determine this issue, my responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and do, as best as possible, what is right. I believe that signing this legislation is the right thing to do,” Governor Baldacci added.
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