Maine becomes fifth state to recognize same-sex marriage
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 12:03 pm
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Maine Gov. Baldacci
Maine Governor John E. Baldacci signed into law on Wednesday a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage in that state. Maine will become the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage, along with Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. It’s the second to do so through a legislative effort as opposed to the courts.
“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said in a statement. “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.”
He continued, “This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of Church and State.”
The Human Right Campaign hailed the decision. “Just one year ago, a single state allowed same-sex couples to marry. Now, with the historic step taken by Gov. Baldacci and the Maine legislature, five states will provide equal dignity, equal respect, and equal rights under state law for same-sex couples by recognizing their freedom to marry, and we hope more will follow soon,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.
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Comment posted May 6, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
More bad law against the will of the people? According to the Founding Fathers, the people were indeed trustworthy to have a say in an interactive constitutional republic; but no longer. Backdoor homosexual marriage laws in Maine are definitely not constitutional and certainly no constitutional scholar would ever claim original intent in the many papers and documents written by the authors of the Constitution. The new law will never stand up to judicial review, especially in lieu of the bootleg tactic that was used to make the bill law. The other travesty today is that the U.S. Congress wants to include convicted pedophiles as recipients and benefactors to hate crime protections. Yet, when it was proposed that American veterans be included in the protection, every Democrat voted “No.” Are we headed somewhere as a nation that we ought not to go? When pedophiles and homosexuals are given “special” and “enhanced” protections under the law, and veterans are not, isn’t there something wrong?
Comment posted May 7, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
wait…am i understanding this correctly? Maine signed this into law WITHOUT a public referendum of any sort? Did the people vote on this at all??????
How can this be done?
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