Keeping the conversation going

First of all, thank you for helping us reach our goal of $10,000 by the end of 2009. The money raised allows us to take the first half of January to put together a comprehensive plan for 2010, including what it will take to win marriage equality (again) in Maine.

As we've said before, this year is going to be incredibly busy for EqualityMaine. We will be working very hard to elect and re-elect pro-marriage legislators, both in the primary and general elections. As you have probably heard, the National Organization for Marriage has already announced their plans to be active in the upcoming elections in an effort to defeat all legislators who voted for marriage equality. We've never been up against a national organization in our work on state legislative races so we're nervous about what kind of influence they will have. We don't have the kind of money a national organization has so we’re going to rely on local volunteers to really step up, work on these local campaigns, and re-elect the people who voted for fairness and equality for our families.

At the same time, if we want to win the next referendum campaign, we're going to need an additional 60,000 supportive voters. It will be hard work identifying and educating this many voters and we will be successful only if we begin the work now. We'll have a clearer picture of how we can accomplish this goal by the end of the month.

We need your support for all of these efforts. Our strategies and tactics will be different in 2010 than they were in 2009, so you may not be knocking on doors or making phone calls to identify someone's position on marriage. But we will need your help throughout the year, and we hope you'll answer our call to action.

In the meantime, please keep the conversation going with your friends and family about the importance of marriage equality - especially if they live in rural Maine.

Thank you!