Same-sex marriage fight roils Maine

For both sides, the Nov. 3 ballot initiative, Question One, is seen as a crucial juncture. Opponents want to show that momentum has shifted to their side, building on last year’s California vote to approve a ban on gay marriage. Supporters - with victories in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Iowa - are eager to demonstrate that California was a temporary setback.

“The defeat in California, which was by no means predicted, was a terrible black eye’’ for supporters of same-sex marriage, said Christian Potholm, a government professor at Bowdoin College. “They very much want to make Maine a place where they turn that around.’’

But the outcome for either side is far from assured. Polls indicate that the contest is so far evenly divided in the independent-minded state, where conservative moral beliefs and entrenched live-and-let-live attitudes often go together.

Both sides have invoked “Maine values’’ in their play for votes, particularly among Catholics, who are believed to be crucial swing votes. Supporters of same-sex marriage have appealed to what they call Mainers’ sense of fairness and equality, arguing that even if they disagree with gay marriage, they should permit others to live the way they want to live. Opponents have argued that gay marriage “throws to the trash heap Maine’s decades-old interest in traditional marriage.’’

Maine is among five New England states that have legalized same-sex marriage. Massachusetts and Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage as a result of judicial decisions in 2003 and 2008, respectively, while Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire followed this spring with legislative action. Iowa is the only state beyond New England where gay and lesbian people can wed.

California previously issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples but stopped last year after voters, with 52 percent of the vote, amended the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.

In Maine, the debate began last January when gay activists backed a bill that would allow the practice. Governor John Baldacci, a Catholic, initially offered no support for the bill, saying in a statement that gay marriage was an issue with which he struggled. But in May, on the same day the state Senate passed the bill, Baldacci signed it. He said that he had come to believe that the state constitution required that he support gay marriage.

The next day, religious groups launched a drive to collect signatures for the ballot initiative to overturn the new law, even before it went in to effect.

Since then, millions of dollars have flowed into campaign coffers on both sides. Supporters of gay marriage have collected $2.7 million, and opponents have raised less than half that amount, reporting $1.1 million in contributions, according to documents filed with the state.

A key contributor has been the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, which has taken up collections for foes of same-sex marriage and loaned its public affairs officer to the campaign. Maine’s Catholic population is estimated by the Catholic Church at 15 percent - many of them Franco-Americans clustered in mill towns, such as Lewiston, Saco, and Waterville.

But supporters of gay marriage also have actively courted the Catholic vote. A TV ad backing same-sex marriage depicts a Catholic grandmother from Lewiston supporting the special relationship between her son, his partner, and their son.

How the Catholic vote plays out is still a guessing game. Take Judy Murray, 69, a retired office worker from York who is a Catholic and is planning to vote in support of same-sex marriage.

“I think everyone has a right to live whatever way they want to live,’’ Murray said, as she shopped in South Berwick.

Down the street, Carole Arnaudin, 67, of North Berwick, who said she is religious but not Catholic, plans to vote against same-sex marriage, supporting the initiative to stop it.

“They should leave things the way they are,’’ Arnaudin said. “It’s my conviction that that’s the way God intended it to be.’’

Supporters of same-sex marriage say Arnaudin’s sentiment is a minority view and that Maine voters will respond to the call for fairness.

“It’s an emotional issue, something that has divided people for many years,’’ said Mark Sullivan, spokesman for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality. “But this is a campaign about fairness. About traditional Maine values of fairness and equality for everyone.’’

Over the weekend, two of Maine’s largest newspapers, The Maine Sunday Telegram and the Bangor Daily News, endorsed that view, calling on Mainers to let the state’s same-sex marriage law stand. The Bangor paper editorialized: “Voting no on Question 1 will reiterate Maine’s commitment to equality and acceptance of families of all types while respecting religious traditions and beliefs.’’

Opponents counter by saying that the traditional definition of marriage, between and man and a woman, should be left alone. Said Mary Conroy, the volunteer coordinator for Stand for Marriage Maine: “Why can’t they go find a different word and attach meaning to it?’’

Of late, debate has centered on whether same-sex marriage will be taught in the schools. Opponents of same-sex marriage say the topic will inevitably seep into classroom discussions.

David Farmer, a spokesman for Baldacci, disagreed, saying that the same-sex marriage law “will have no impact on what is taught.’’

Overhanging the debate in Maine is the vote in California. The Sacramento-based consulting firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs, which coordinated the campaign to ban same-sex marriage there, has been working with opponents of gay marriage in Maine. Supporters of same-sex marriage say the California campaign has proven an instructive template because many of their opponents’ ads are similar to ones that aired in California.

“It’s certainly an event in history that is out there,’’ Sullivan said. “But we are totally focused on Maine.’’