Gay marriage ban vote spurs Cape backlash

PROVINCETOWN -- Teri Beaudoin has voted for a Republican just once in his life, two years ago, when he found himself checking the box next to Representative Shirley Gomes.

He had liked what he had read about Gomes, and as a gay man, was encouraged by her support of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. So last winter, when Gomes voted for a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he was outraged.

''She's not welcome in this town again," said Beaudoin, manager of a home decor store called Forbidden Fruit. ''She's supposed to represent this district and she did a poor job of representing us."

Gomes has been so popular among her district's 33,000 voters that no one challenged her in the past two elections. As a liberal Republican who supported civil unions and opposed capital punishment, Gomes apparently satisfied even voters in the Democratic strongholds on the farthest tip of the Cape, such as Provincetown, where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans, 1,591 to 137, as of 2002.

But the political landscape changed dramatically last November, when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the centuries-old notion of marriage as the union of a man and a woman should include same-sex couples. The Legislature responded by narrowly voting to begin the process of amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

Within a week of Gomes's first vote to support one of the proposed amendments, two challengers -- Len Stewart and Sarah Peake, both Democrats from Provincetown -- announced they would try to unseat her. A third candidate, Molly Perdue, soon announced that she, too, would launch a campaign against Gomes. All three are gay.

Stewart dropped out of the race in May, saying campaigning would take too much time away from his job as director of the Barnstable County Department of Human Services.

Gay rights groups have targeted the race as a chance to unseat an opponent of gay marriage. SupportEquality.org, a new website, has endorsed Peake, allowing potential donors around the country to contribute to her campaign.

''I want to recognize that Representative Gomes has evolved over time," said Joshua Friedes, advocacy director of the Freedom to Marry Coalition in Massachusetts. ''But the bottom line is she hasn't evolved anywhere quickly enough."

As she campaigns, Gomes has focused on her decade of work in the Legislature, rather than a single, controversial issue. Although the gay marriage debate produced more phone calls, e-mails, and letters from her constituents than any other issue she has confronted, now voters rarely ask her about the vote, she said.

''I believe they're raising questions that concern them," she said. ''I would say that health care's a number one priority."

Her opponents, who are competing in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, are trying to avoid being cast as single-issue candidates in a district that includes towns like Chatham and Orleans, far less liberal than Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet. Peake says gay marriage was the final of several thorns of discontent that provoked her to challenge Gomes.

''I feel that there are a lot of issues in this race," said Perdue. ''Gay marriage is one of the issues. It is not the only issue."

All the candidates say they are more often quizzed on the traditional concerns of residents of the Outer Cape -- services for senior citizens, affordable housing, transportation -- than about gay marriage. ''It's hard to say politically how [gay marriage] really plays out," said Senator Robert O'Leary, a Democrat who represents the Cape and the islands and supports gay marriage.

Campaigning in a far-flung district without a commercial television station means knocking on doors and showing up at the local dumps and recycling centers, cornering voters as they drop off bags of discarded newspapers and empty bottles.

Early last week, Peake, a selectman and guesthouse owner in Provincetown, handed out free coffee and bagels inside the cavernous Willy's Gym in Eastham.

Perdue, who is finishing her doctorate in law, policy, and society at Northeastern University, is a member of the Provincetown School Committee. She contemplated running after a fellow student suggested that she take on Gomes.

In Provincetown, where gay and lesbian politics have long been part of the landscape and where a majority of the selectmen are gay, some residents who don't support same-sex marriage -- especially those who have business dealings with the town -- are reluctant to publicize their views. The Urban Institute recently dubbed Provincetown the ''gayest town" in America after analyzing 2000 census data.

''I'm all for Shirley Gomes," said one business owner, a white-haired woman who declined to discuss gay marriage with a shake of her head. ''This is a small town," she said.

Another man who works for a local business also declined to give his name for fear of possible repercussions. A longtime supporter of Gomes, he agrees with her that gay couples should be allowed to unite in civil unions, but not marriage. ''I think when all is said and done, history will record her as a very fair and generous person," he said.

Gomes said most of the constituents who wrote and called wanted a chance to vote on a potential amendment to ban gay marriage. If the state Legislature again approves the amendment next year, a referendum will go before voters in 2006. Gomes said she decided to support the amendment because she thought it satisfied constituents on both sides of the debate: It allowed gay couples to unite in civil unions, and allowed all voters to decide whether to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage. ''It was a very difficult decision because there was just such passion and intensity on both sides of this issue," Gomes said. ''There has never been any other issue that has had as much passion."

Those who support gay marriage said Gomes's vote left them feeling betrayed.

''To just turn her head from this town of 3,000 is pretty remarkable," said Jill Vaughan, a shop owner in Provincetown. ''I think people thought that even though she's not on a limb supporting us, at least she'd give us this vote."

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.