Apparently, the Portland diocese has also funneled another $214,550 from other Catholic churches and dioceses into the campaign.  Checks have been sent in to the Portland diocese and they will hand it over to Stand for Marriage.  Is acting as a front and a funnel to circumvent campaign finance law really acceptable?

The Bangor Daily News has a lengthy piece on the referendum which takes a slightly different take on the issue from the Washington Post piece I linked to yesterday.

The BDN also looks at the role churches are playing Question 1 and the history of marriage.

“I respect everybody for their beliefs…but one thing that is important to me is realizing pain in a human being.  And whatever you believe, whether you don’t approve of how somebody lives their life…But to me what hurts is the lack of empathy for people in pain.  Not gay, not straight, but pain.  And Sandy, when I was looking at you and seeing this young man in pain, I didn’t feel that.”

Here’s the clip.  She says this around minute 7:30.

“David Axelrod is here.  David and I have been together for a long time.  I can still remember…I tear up a little bit when I think back to the day I called Axe so many years ago and said, ‘we can do wonderful things together,’ and he said the same thing that partners all across America are saying to each other right now.  ‘Let’s go to Iowa and make it official.’”

I also love the dig at Michael Steele and the Clinton jokes.  Well played.

In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch — who previously defined marriage as strictly between a man and a woman — promised his “best decision” after consulting lawmakers and constituents. Mr. Lynch would be wise also to consult his neighbor in Maine, Gov. John Baldacci, who signed his state’s same-sex marriage bill. He previously had opposed the idea, with the familiar hedge of supporting the half-step of civil unions…

…This week, the City Council of the District of Columbia took a preliminary step, voting 12 to 1, to recognize marriages between gay people certified in other states. A fuller debate is anticipated on a proposal to legalize same-sex unions. Unfortunately, there already are calls for Congress to once more tread on home rule and block this progress in the nation’s capital.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is right to caution against such grandstanding. Governor Baldacci heard the people speak. Congress should listen.

April 24, 2009

One of the thousands of Mainers who showed up at last week’s marriage equality hearings was my mother.  She arrived at 6:50am wearing red to support me, her gay son.

In an email after the hearings, she wrote, “To sit and listen to the ugly statements that the opponents were making tore me apart.  I wanted to scream, ‘This is my child you are talking about – don’t do that.’  What does this do to my child and others to hear this?  If it is so painful to me, what does it do to the gay person?”

Unfortunately, there is nothing that opponents of LD 1020 said that I haven’t heard before.  Their comments may have offended me, but I have learned to move past them.

Four years ago, at 20 years old, I was finally able to tell my family and friends that I am gay. I knew deep down that my family would accept me and know that I am the same son, brother, cousin, and grandson they’ve always known.  Unlike many gay men and women, I was treated no differently once I told my family and friends.

While I can move past the pain from these comments, my mother is right to react so strongly.  We should all condemn those discriminatory words—not for me—but for everyone that hears them.  For the young adults who feel the way I did four years ago: afraid and alone.

There is nothing worse than feeling that alone.  Feeling that, despite being like your friends and family in almost every way, there is one thing that makes you so different that you fear acknowledging it to even yourself.  Marriage equality won’t make someone gay, but it will make acknowledging it easier.

This is why my concern is not for the man or woman who has summoned the courage to say, “I’m gay.”  My concern is for the teenager who cannot yet say those words.  For the teenager who hears people stand and declare that, despite God’s love of mankind, he opposes the love that two of those people find together.

I remember what it felt like to hear someone rail against homosexuality, not knowing that I am gay.  Some would have been mortified if they knew how they made me feel.  Others would have said my feelings were a rightful shame.  Whatever they believe, I can tell you this: before I came out, I felt worthless when I heard those words.  Today, I do not.

Today, I feel pity.  I pity the narrow-minded that can’t appreciate what I have to offer.  But more than pitying the person who will never benefit by learning from their gay brothers and sisters, I pity the people who hear their hate.  I feel terrible that I can’t reach out and tell every closeted teen and adult that, despite what they hear from some, I have encountered enormous love and support from my family, friends, and strangers, and they can find the same.

When I listened to last week’s hearings, I heard incredible stories of survival, love, resilience, and compassion that often go unheard.

Ministers who want to recognize the love of two gay people.

The World War II veteran who fought for our freedoms and stands up because his son is denied full rights.

The interracial couple who stand and says that they faced this same discrimination 40 years ago based on race.

The 9-year-old child who, through sobs, says it breaks her heart that her godmother can’t marry.

The 8th grader who eloquently stands up for his two mothers.

And the gay couple who—despite the illness that afflicts one of them—stands to demand their rights before it is too late.

The hearings in Augusta showed me the best of Maine.  I saw compassion rise above the refrain of dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and more importantly I saw a cross section of Maine stand up for equality.

I honestly did expect LD 1020 to pass (and still expect it to face a ballot initiative subject to an attempted “people’s veto”), but even that expectation didn’t prepare me for the reality.  I was completely blown away by the news and still don’t think the full implications have sunk in.  When Gavin Newsom introduced gay marriage in San Francisco in 2004, I thought it was a stunt that would ultimately hurt our chances of achieving even civil unions.  I thought the backlash would be so immediate and fierce that it would put the gay rights movement back years.  I was wrong.

The push for gay marriage has obviously seen failures (read: Prop 8), but it has put the conversation center stage.  It is easier to put off choosing a side when no one is talking about an issue.  Out of sight, out of mind.  My failure was in thinking that, when forced to take a side, there would not be enough people who would take my side.

I really can’t emphasize how glad I am to have been wrong.

Realistically, there is still a good chance that a people’s veto will pass and a majority of people–when in a private booth on election day–will take away the rights of a minority.  If this happens, I think we’ll see the pro-civil rights side energized as we did in the wake of Prop 8.  My hope, however, is that if forced to vote on my rights after such a public and vibrant debate, people will go beyond the tag lines of “conservative” or “traditional” or “liberal” or “progressive,” and they’ll see this is about real people.  It’s about my right to someday marry the person I love and have the same protections as my five siblings.  It’s about the rights of a child to say his parents are married.  It’s about the rights of that child to feel that his family is valued and respected as much as any other family.

Six years ago, I would have NEVER believed that same-sex marriages would be recognized in Maine before I turned 25.  Now, I think Mainers–and people across the country–have been forced to stop and consider what their casual opposition to (or lack of support for) marriage equality really means.  The good news is people have proven themselves to be thoughtful and compassionate.  I think the majority of those who step back and think about the issue and the effect it has on their family, friends, and neighbors, are coming down on the side of justice.  It will be a while before I can really step back and take full stock of what today has meant, but until I really can fully appreciate it: Thank you for proving my worst fears false.

The Portland Press also describe a scene that I had been trying to find, when Rep. Terry Morrison told the body that he was a gay man–something many in the chamber did not know.

State Rep. Terry Morrison, D-South Portland, said he was a “very proud co-sponsor of this bill,” and also an openly gay man. “As of this point on, I’m an openly gay representative, and darn proud,” he said.

He talked about how his partner of 11 years had committed suicide four years ago. They had a close friendship with a lesbian couple, he said, and had agreed to start a family together.

His voice breaking, Morrison talked about how the two couples had two daughters together, now 10 and 11. He disputed the argument that gay people couldn’t provide a stable family life.

“We created a phenomenal family. That family still exists,” he said. “I’m living proof – we’re all living proof – that we can have a phenomenal family.”