[1]AUGUSTA, Maine (BP)–It’s an off-year election, but the issue of homosexuality figures to drive people to the polls in at least two states this November.
Texas voters already knew they would be considering a constitutional marriage amendment, and Maine voters learned July 28 that they would be voting on whether to repeal a recently passed “gay rights” law.
The vote in Maine became possible after the Christian Civic League of Maine and the Maine Grassroots Coalition collected 56,650 valid signatures in less than 90 days, which was more than the 50,519 required, the Kennebec Journal reported. Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap declared the signatures valid July 28.
The bill, which became law in March with the signature of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, adds “sexual orientation” to the list of groups protected against discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations, the Associated Press reported.
“People understand that this is the precursor to same-sex marriage. That’s what it means to most citizens,” Paul Madore, head of the Grassroots Coalition, told The New York Times.
Maine voters have rejected “sexual orientation” laws twice before — in 1998 and 2000. But since then, Massachusetts and Canada have legalized “gay marriage,” and some believe Mainers this time may allow the law.
[2]SLIPPERY SLOPE IN CONN.? — Any hope that same-sex civil unions would appease homosexual activists in Connecticut ended July 28, when an attorney representing eight homosexual couples filed legal briefs arguing that civil unions create an unconstitutional “separate but equal” formula. The briefs were filed by an attorney for the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), which successfully sued for “gay marriage” legalization in Massachusetts.
GLAD originally filed the Connecticut lawsuit in August 2004.
“Connecticut’s civil union law -– which grants gay couples every tangible, legal right and benefit of civil marriage -– makes a mockery of the argument that the state has any legitimate reason to deny these couples marriage,” GLAD senior attorney Bennett Klein said in a statement. “Civil unions establish separation for the sake of separation, exclusion for the sake of exclusion. That’s plainly wrong.”
Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, signed the civil unions bill into law in April.
“Any legislator who voted for civil unions thinking it was going to stop there was dead wrong,” Brian Brown, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, told the Associated Press. “The normal means of foisting same-sex marriage on the public in America isn’t through a vote [and] isn’t through the normal channels of democracy. [I]t’s through the court.”
LESBIAN MAYOR IN SAN DIEGO — For a few months, at least, San Diego has a lesbian deputy mayor. Councilwoman Toni Atkins was elected deputy mayor by the other council members July 25 and will serve in that role until December, when a new mayor is sworn in. Atkins is an open lesbian.
The move came after the mayor resigned amid scandal, followed by the resignation of the sitting deputy mayor in an unrelated scandal. That left the council to choose the temporary mayor, which was Atkins.
According to the homosexual news service 365gay.com, San Diego is the largest city with an openly homosexual mayor.
“I know that it has significance for our LGBT community, so it is something that I take seriously,” she told the news service, referring to the acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”
“I think it’s a huge responsibility, so I’m very much aware of it and I hope that it’s a good thing for our community.”
Voters will elect a new mayor in November.
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For more information about the national debate over “gay marriage,” visit http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage [3]