Maine Defeats  
Anti-Gay Referendum

AUGUSTA, ME — In a rare bright
spot in gay and lesbian ballot
issues, Maine voters turned
down a referendum backed by
conservative Christian groups
that would have repealed an
anti—discrimination measure

that had already passed the leg— I

islature and been signed into
law.

The November vote was the
fourth lgbt equality—related ref-
erendum in the past 8 years.
The margin was reported in the
Gay City News as 45 percent
for the referendum, leaving 55
percent as voting against.

“Today’s win proves that
dogged, grassroots organizing
can overcome the lies and
smears of anti-gay zealots and
the profound unfairness of hav-
ing minority rights put up for a
popular vote,” said Matt
Foreman, executive director of
the National Gay and Lesbian V
Task Force. “After the marriage
amendment losses we’ve expe-
rienced over the last 12 months,
this is a much-needed victory
for our national movement — it
proves we can win statewide
contests. Every lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender

American is deeply indebted to
the staff and volunteers of
Maine Won’t Discriminate, and
to the people of Maine for

' embracing fairness and reject-

ing bigotry.”

Cited by other sources as
also having worked for the vic-
tory was Equality Maine.

GLAD, NGLTF, and HRC
all issued press releases touting
their contributions to the win.
Each group invested funds and
expertise in grassroots organiz-
ing against the measure.
MassEquality, the pro-marriage
equality organizing group in the
Bay State, organized phone
banks among its supporters to
call Maine residents to remind
them to vote.

Because the last two contests
in Maine were so close (the
measure in 2000 lost by less
than 5,000 votes), voter identi-
fication and get-out-the-vote
\ rk was considered crucial.
Starting in 2003, Equality
Maine began an ambitious pro-
gram to identify pro—LGBT vot-
ers through door-to-door can-
vassing in Portland, according
to a press release from NGLTF.

Supporters of the repeal

measure focused their cam-
paign on gay marriage, even
though the law to be repealed
does not mention marriage.
Other tactics linked the anti-
discrimination law to
“pedophiles” teaching in
schools.

Ron Bilancia, a member of
Maine Won’t Discriminate (see
“The Way Life Should Be 
Almost,” OITM October, 2005),
sent a victory message to the
Christian Civic League’s
Michael Heath, who led the
support for the defeated repeal
referendum: “[A]dmit that your
resounding 10-point defeat in
Tuesday’s Maine vote on
Question #1 could have been
nothing other than God’s will,”
he urged. “[T]he people of
Maine will not stand for intol-
erance cloaked in religion nor
the systematic discrimination of
ANY of their children.  Now
ALL Mainers will have the
very protection from discrimi-
nationthat you as church mem-
bers have enjoyed while at-the
same time working to deny it to
others. I can only hope you
have now seen God and Jesus’
will for what it really is.” V

Cyber Center Deletes Porn

BURLINGTON — It wasn’t a posi-
tive working atmosphere for
R.U.l .2? Americorps Vista staff
member Peggy Luhrs. Her pri-
mary responsibility is staffing
the David Bohnett Cyber

» Center. “We started to get lots
5 of 19-year-old straight guys,”

Luhrs said, whose primary
online activity was searching
out cyber porn images of
women. A

Luhrs was not the only per-
son concerned. “One woman
complained about ‘why are they
doing this here,”’ she said, also
noting a recent influx of middle-
school-age girls at the center,
who, she said, “shouldn’t have
to be exposed” to the explicit
and sometimes violent content
on neighboring computers.

The computer stations at the
center are not isolated within
carrels or booths, but sit side-
by-side on two long counters.

_ In response to these com-
plaints, the center has instituted

a new policy that reads, “In
order ‘to help maintain safe
space in R.U.l .2?’s David
Bohnett Cyber Center, we must
ask that patrons refrain from
visiting pornographic websites
while using the computers in
the Cyber Center. Repeated vio-
lations of this rule may result in
the patron being asked to leave
the center. Questions about this
policy should be directed to the
staff.”

The struggle is between pre-
serving the Center’s mission to
be a safe place for all users to
access explicit “information
about sex, sexuality and sexual
orientation,” and the realization
that some pornography harms
women. Requiring a staff mem-
ber to involuntarily be exposed
to such images could be con-
strued as allowing a “hostile
workp1ace” atmospherel

Luhrs identified the Center’s
philosophy as “sex-p_ositive”

- but suggested that the phrase

has become’a shield for violent
pornography. “I’m a sex-posi-
tive person. But it seems that
people who get it about what
safe space is about, when it
comes to pornography, sudden-
ly sex-positive is a priority.
“We are not anti-sex.

Chrfstopher [Kaufman, execu--
tive director] had us all come

- up with our favorite informa-

tional sex sites,” she explained.
The list will be made available
to any patron who asks for it.

“My objection is that porn is
harmful to women,” Luhrs con-
tinued. “People are not thinking
about_ how this stuff is made.
The feminist analysis has been
obliterated by the so-called sex
radicals. They’re not very radi-
cal. It’s Marcuse’s theory of
‘repressive tolerance’: the cul-
ture will allow whatever sup-
ports its values. It’s all these
big corporations pushing com-
modified body types. That’s not
sex liberation.” V

olmtaina 

news

Vt Leg, cu & FediRights

MONTPELIER — In a then-little-
noticed move at the end of the
last legislative session, Senator
Rep. Alison Clarkson (D-
Woodstock) began circulating,
with Matt Dunne (D- Hartland), a
letter to Congressional leaders. At
the behest of constituent Steve
Swayne and his partner Mike
Backman of Woodstock, the letter
urged House Speaker Dennis
Hastert and Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist to extend federal
marriage benefits to civil union
partners. .

A copy of the letter was als
presented to Rep. Barney Frank
on his fundraising visit to the
Green Mountain State in late
October. The funds Frank was
raising were for Democratic can-
didates for the Vermont House.

The letter began as a request
for a resolution, Swayne said.
“My representative, Alison
Clarkson, worked the system as
much as she could, and the lead-
ership determined that a letter
would be the best way to go.” He
said Clarkson was a personal
friend who attended the couple’s
civil union. Swayne, an associate
professor in the music department
of Dartmouth College, drafted
much of the content of the letter
by way of information provided
to the Legislative Counsel while
its staff was working onthe origi-
nally proposed resolution.

“We are trying to shore up a
right we already have here” in
Vermont, said Rep. Clarkson.
“We wanted to hold President
Bush accountable for the states’
rights statements he had made.
And we wanted to add to the
foundation of rights that the state
can extend.” Clarkson urged
members of the community and

A allies to follow up on the letter
with Rep. Barney Frank and with
Rep. Bernie Sanders.

“This letter was not meant to
undermine any movement toward
marriage equality,” Clarkson
explained.

“I support any step in moving
us toward equality,” said Vermont
Freedom to Marry Task Force
Chairwoman Beth Robinson. She
said Rep. Jason Lorber (D-
Burlington) kept the Task Force
in the loop while the letter was
being circulated.

Rep. Lorber maintained that
the letter was a positive step suc-
cessfully publicizing the fact that
civil union partners do not cur- '

' rently receive any federal-rights

or benefits. “Hundreds of thou-
sands of people learned that what

we have now is not adequate. We
should not rest until we have
equal rights.”

Senator Matt Dunne said he
had already been “challenged
‘with the conflict between state
and federal laws with respect to
Medicaid rules and having to use
state funds to make up the
difference.

“It is clear just how often fed-
eral laws don’t allow states to
convey benefits as we see fit,”
Dunne continued. “Civil Union
and marriage are not mutually
exclusive. People in relationships
need to be recognized at the fed-
eral level on an equitable basis.”

Asked whether Governor Jim
Douglas had been invited to sign
the letter, Dunne said a decision
was made “to keep the letter a
House and Senate activity,
although we would have been
delighted to have his support.”

Rep. Robert Dostis (D-
Waterbury) admitted that, “given
the current climate in Washing-
ton, the chances that the letter
will have much impact are
small.” Asked about how it might
affect efforts toward marriage
equality, Dostis said, “If we could
get all the same rights, it’s a mat-
ter of semantics.”

The letter was signed by 97 _
out of 160 legislators.

Some of the signers are not
usually counted among lgbt
allies, including Sens. Vincent
Illuzzi (R- Newport), Hull
Maynard (R-Shrewsbury), and
Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland).
Senator Diane Snelling (R-
Shelbume), usually counted
among equality allies, was also
among the Republicans who
signed the letter. '

The letter quoted statements
current President George W.
Bush had made during the 2004
campaign, such as “I don’t think
we should deny people rights to a
civil union, a legal arrangement if
that’s [what] a state chooses to
do.” Bush made that statement in
an interview with Charles Gibson
of ABC News on October 26,
2004, according to the legislative
letter.

Also in the letter was a brief
listing of significant federal rights
and benefits currently denied to
same-sex couples, including fed-

‘ eral inheritance rights, social

security survivor benefits, veter-
an’s benefits for partners and
dependents, spousal immunity
from compelled testimony in fed-
eral courts, and immigration and
naturalization standing. V