Maine Gay Marriage Vote
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http://newsok.com/dejection-fills-ballroom-after-gay-marriage-vote/article/3414563
Dejection fills ballroom after Maine gay marriage vote
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer
Published: November 4, 2009
PORTLAND, Maine — Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible.
Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.
"I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is, why people are so afraid of this change.
"It hurts. It hurts personally," she said. "It's a personal rejection of us and our relationship, and I don't understand what the fear is."
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.
"The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation," said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal.
For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message.
Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.
Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry.
"They love and they have the right to love. And we can't tell somebody how to love," said Holman, 26.
While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue.
The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: "We all do!"
"We're not short-timers. We're here for the long haul and whether it's just all night and into the morning, or it's next week or next month or next year. We will be here. We'll be here fighting. We'll be working. We will regroup."
For Burnett and Swanson, the July 10 wedding date — and a reception cruise on Casco Bay — is off.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
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You have to be trolling at this point. To say "I don't want gays to be able to marry because it is slavery for everyone that isn't married." Really.
1/10, too obvious.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I never called it slavery, I was only using this as an analogy where a 'right' was granted to one group of people at the expense of other.
How do you defend a system that discriminates against singles? Why do give more money to military personnel that are married? Why don't you support equal pay for equal work?
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Why are you creating arguments for me that I never made?
I'm simply pointing out that you somehow feel it is okay to discriminate against gays, in their having access to marriage...because you don't like marriage.
Which is a dick move. There is no getting around that.
I wouldn't seek to deny a minority access to anything the rest of the public had, no matter how much I hated or disagreed with the object of inequality.
Anyone should be able to marry anyone they like. If you don't like people being able to get married, you don't have to get married. To stand in the way of one minority and say "You can't have what everyone else, including myself, has access to." makes you a douchebag. Even if it is because you don't like marriage, or won't personally use your access to it.
I don't really care if you choose to be a hermit. You have the opportunity to legally bind yourself to someone you may love in the future, sharing ownership of property, and becoming one unit. You CAN do that. I CANNOT. Please stop trolling.
Also, there is NO pay increase for being married. You are lieing. The only money you can get extra if you are married, is if you are deployed away from your family on an unaccompanied tour of duty. That is SEPARATION pay, to compensate for being forced to stay away from them. It maxes at $250/month, and is usable only for service members with dependent(s), that live with them, and a great number of many other restrictions. Is this your argument against marriage? Really? What a joke.
I want to be able to marry someone else I love and call that bond a family. I want that option. I may not use it, but it is something that I want available. Why do you want to deny me access to something that everyone else has? Why do you mock the plight of not having access to it, while others do? What do you have to gain from this?
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
Who the hell is stopping you from calling anything anything you want? If I want call my doorknob my spouse, who the hell is stopping me? I can printout a certificate on my printer saying we're married. What is so fucking magical about having it registered in the county courthouse? Are judges these magical wizards that can create marriage only if you say the magic words 'I do'.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
EXC is right to say that married couples get preferential financial treatement in terms of taxes. Since they get a tax break just for being married, that is effectively increasing the tax burden of all non-married people. There is some total tax burden, and married people get some relief from it, so taxes are set up so that non-married people are paying more than their fair share. And they only have the higher tax burden just because they aren't married. And that is bullshit.
But that has nothing to do with gay marriage. That problem could only possibly be addressed by changing the tax code. Whether or not gays get married won't make the taxes for singles more fair.
I get where EXC is coming from on this. I wish the government would have no part in marriage and I wish that marriage was a private matter with no government recognition. But, in this non-ideal world that doesn't conform to my fantasies, the government controls marriages. And so my wishes to the contrary don't matter. So lets give gays equal rights even if I wish the government would get out of the business of regulating marriage contracts. Since my perfect no-government-interference-in-marriage world doesn't exist, I'll have to settle for marriage equality in this world. Equality and not regulating bigotry is more important than attaining a libertarian eutopia.
EDIT: I just realized: was that in response to members of the military getting a pay increase for being married? Because they really do get that. Also, as a separate matter the tax system screws singles to benefit married couples..
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-30190.html
Marriage Rights and Benefits
Learn some of the legal and practical ways that getting married changes your life.
Whether or not you favor marriage as a social institution, there's no denying that it confers many rights, protections, and benefits -- both legal and practical. Some of these vary from state to state, but the list typically includes:
Tax Benefits
Estate Planning Benefits
Government Benefits
Employment Benefits
Medical Benefits
Death Benefits
Family Benefits
Housing Benefits
Consumer Benefits
Other Legal Benefits and Protections
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
My sentiments exactly, and a point that I've been arguing since the election. The Moron church had a large sum of money tossed into this thing as well. I am proud to say that my hometown, Portland, was overwhelmingly positive. It's the backwoods folks that killed it. For the life of me I can't understand how it's legal to have tax exempt status, yet they can contribute money to influence political elections. I'm throwing the bullshit flag on this one.