Okay, I know this is way too much marriage talk for a general LGBT/Christian blog. BUT, well, Maine just made New England’s tipping point on gay marriage, by imitating Iowa, … or was it Vermont, … or California?

Maine’s Gov. John Baldacci signed the legislation on Wednesday that was passed by the state House only the day before (and previously by the Senate). It had been up in the air whether he would sign or not. [1] According to 365Gay.com,

Up until he put his pen to the bill, it was anyone’s guess whether he would sign or veto it. Baldacci had said previously he had not made up his mind on gay marriage. Had he vetoed it, the bill likely would have died. It received final approval in the Senate by a slim majority, not enough to override a veto.

As the governor appeared to be equivocating, same-sex marriage advocates delivered more than 10,000 postcards asking him to support the legislation.

So Maine becomes the second state to legalize same-gender marriage by action of the legislature. And again, the opponents who have loudly cried about “judicial activism” have to remain silent on this one.

For example, Maggie ([2] National Organization for Marriage) Gallagher’s [3] testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in March 2004, which argued for a federal marriage amendment (to disenfranchise us) was prepared for a hearing linked to “judicial activism.” Gallagher’s thinking is at best flimsy whenever she sounds off, and I applaud [4] John Corvino’s May 1 opinion piece “[5] Gay marriage and the bigot card” for exposing some of this.

But Maine may be more like Iowa because, although same-gender marriage became legal by action of the Supreme Court, a constitutional amendment to reverse the court’s decision is also unlikely. A constitutional amendment in Maine apparently requires the action of the legislature itself—the same legislature that just passed the law—but by a 2/3 vote in each house, and then only with subsequent ratification by the voters. And please note ([6] 365gay.com) “The new law repeals Maine’s 12-year old so-called Defense of Marriage law, which bars same-sex marriage. Under the new law, churches are not compelled to conduct same-sex weddings if it would be inconsistent with their doctrine.” Observers think it is highly unlikely that the Maine legislature would reverse itself any time soon.

But Maine is also like California, because with enough signatures, according to Ballotpedia, the voters themselves could put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to overturn same-gender marriage (see [7] Maine’s constitution, Article VI, Part 3. Section 18). And what is particularly noteworthy is that instead of having to gather 1 million signatures as in California, it would apparently require only 55,000 signatures.

The [8] Maine Marriage Alliance, a conservative consortium of mainly churches and individuals, are pushing such an amendment, but they don’t appear to be a formidable group. As of Wednesday, May 6, their web site is completely ignorant of the new law. And interestingly, there is no religious-based argument against gay marriage. The Pastor’s Portal is a private, secured site.

Maine’s situation is also like California in another regard: the law signed May 6 doesn’t take effect for 90 days, meaning that the first legal marriage would not happen until August 4. I don’t know if there is enough time beginning now to gather and qualify 55,000 signatures to put a repeal on a ballot in November. If not, Maine voters could face a November 2010 constitutional amendment to undo what the legislature has done. In either case, there will almost certainly be hundreds of same-gender couples who legally wed before any voter backlash could stop the process.

Certainly the more couples who wed, and the more days that pass, and the more states that legalize gay marriage, will only add to that sense that [9] gay/lesbian marriage is inevitable.

As a final observation, I was surprised and amused that the National Organization for Marriage would put (at least for today) a Carrie Prejean video in a pop-up box in front of their site.

I wasn’t going to go there, but: it is fascinating that a woman who happily commoditizes her own breast-enhanced body should become the poster child for a NOM advertisement “protecting” marriage “and the Faith Communities that Sustain It.” According to an Associated Press story on May 6, “The directors of the Miss California USA pageant are looking into whether title holder Carrie Prejean violated her contract by working with a national group opposed to same-sex marriage and by posing semi-nude when she was a teenage model.” If this kind of thing is the moral high ground, Ms. Gallagher, then “traditional marriage” is doomed, and it won’t be the lesbians, gay men, court justices or state legislators who doomed it.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles