That Road to Marriage Equality? It Runs Through Maine.

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-04 09:22:00 UTC
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Marriage equality Armed with new commercials, support from their Governor, and field campaigning that has been years in the making, activists working to preserve and protect marriage equality in Maine are stepping up their game.  They released television ads this week pushing the message that the marriage ballot initiative before Maine voters this November is discriminatory and contrary to Maine values.  And now the marriage equality campaign - officially known as No on 1 - has been added to the Orange to Blue program on Dailykos.

In other words, this is a good week for marriage equality supporters in the great state of Maine.

Jesse Connolly, the field director leading the No on 1 campaign, has a diary entry up on Kos right now that spells things out pretty clearly.  The road to marriage equality goes through Maine.  If we win in Maine, it makes the campaigns we'll be having in New York, California, New Jersey, and many other places in the coming months and years all that much more powerful.

But Maine itself is going to be an uphill battle.  As Connolly notes, many of the same forces that fought back hard against marriage equality in California last year - and won - are working hard in Maine.  But this time we can beat 'em.

"The campaign against marriage equality includes the same cast of characters who won in California on Prop. 8 last year," said Connolly. "They’re even using the same campaign consultants: Schubert-Flint. If we know one thing about that group, it’s that they know where to find the resources to fund their anti-gay campaigns."

So how do we beat them?  With a fantastic field network.  With a cadre of volunteers working the streets of Maine in support of marriage equality.  And with our pocketbooks, even if those pocketbooks can only afford to give $5, $10, or $15.

Maine is the ground zero for marriage equality this year.  Let's just hope that after we win in Maine this November, that adage about "as Maine goes, so goes the nation" rings true.

(Photo courtesy of albany_tim's photostream on Flickr.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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