Maine Heterosexual Supremacists Claim Enough Signatures For

Joe.My.God reported last week that the Maine organization "Stand For Marriage" is claiming that they have enough signatures to place a referendum on the November 2009 ballot as to whether the marriage equality bill Governor John Baldacci signed into law on May 6th should go into effect after all.

"In just four weeks, we've gathered more than 55,000 signatures from Mainers who believe they, not the legislature and governor, should have the final say on the definition of marriage," said Marc Mutty, Chairman of the coalition. "There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support from voters across the state. This response gives us momentum that will lift us over the first hurdle of putting the issue before the people and, ultimately, carry us to victory in November."

All signatures must be certified by the Secretary of State for validity. Once certified, the issue is cleared to appear on the November 2009 ballot.

"The fact that we've gathered all these signatures in just a month to proceed with the People's Veto suggests that the people of Maine, like those in 43 other states, want to restore marriage to its historical and time-honored definition as between a man and a woman," said Bob Emrich, founder of the Maine Jeremiah Project and an Executive Committee member of Stand for Marriage Maine. ÒWe look forward to submitting the measure for certification and engaging Mainers in a vigorous defense of marriage. Traditional marriage has never lost on the ballot in any state. We expect it to prevail in Maine."

The exact text of the question that will appear on the Tuesday November 3rd ballot will be:

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

The correct answer is NO. So, again, if you are in FAVOR of marriage equality, one needs to vote NO on the ballot question, a very similarly confusing situation like 2008's Proposition 8.

The main organization fighting the referendum is Maine Freedom to Marry, which has recently relaunched their website. Please support them!