UPDATE:
Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday signed a gay marriage bill passed just hours before by the Maine Legislature.
Baldacci made his announcement within an hour of the Maine Senate giving its final approval to LD 1020. The Senate voted 21-13 in favor of the measure after a short debate.
“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said in a written 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.”
Via Bangor Daily News.
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Original post:
Heads up:
AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine Senate gave its final approval to a gay marriage bill that is now headed to the desk of an undecided governor.
The Senate voted 21-13 in favor of the measure after a short debate.
The House of Representatives gave its approval on a 89-57 vote Tuesday. It remains unclear whether Gov. John Baldacci would sign it. The Democrat has been monitoring the legislative debate but remains undecided.
Via Bangor Daily News.
SEE ALSO: Marry in Massachusetts’s Details on Maine SSM Process about how Maine voters could mount a challenge via a people’s veto plebiscite should Governor Baldacci sign this into law.
I thought the Goodrich decision was supposed to set the SSM marriage fight back decades and that no other state would touch the subject for ten years. Maine makes 5.
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p>Me? I’ll side with MLK when he said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
My understanding is that marriage equality opponents are likely to get the signatures to challenge the law, which will temporarily suspend the law. Nevertheless, this is obviously a major step forward. The most important thing is that this is the second state (with Vermont) that enacted marriage equality legislatively. It shows that being for marriage equality in many states is not the politically scary proposition for legislators that it was even five years ago.
has a proud history of re-passing laws until they stick. They had to re-pass the anti-discrimination law 2 or 3 times until the most recent referendum finally failed.
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p>But I’m not so sure they’ll be able to get their signatures this time around unless someone pours LOTS of outside money into the state to pay for professional signature gatherers. I just really don’t think the fight is in ’em any more. Was it Mike Heath who closed up shop recently? I’m sure there will be an effort, but I’ll be surprised if they get the signatures. Equality Maine has a super grassroots base these days…