High Emotion

July 13, 2009

By Susan M. Cover

AUGUSTA -- Maine has had its share of highly charged, emotional campaigns in recent years, with votes on physician-assisted suicide, late-term abortion and bear hunting.

Gay marriage is next.

Those who oppose it announced last week they have the signatures needed to ask the public to overturn a new law that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry.

If those signatures are validated, the November vote will have national implications, as activists across the country watch to see what happens here.

It's a debate that will force a nearly evenly divided Maine electorate, at least according to one poll, to make a decision on how marriage should be defined.

"It's a delicate issue," said Marc Mutty, head of Stand for Marriage Maine, the group leading the repeal effort. "People have trouble talking about this. I know folks who want to protect traditional marriage who live in fear of being seen as bigots."

Maine became the fifth state in the country to allow gay couples to marry when Gov. John Baldacci signed the law in May. Immediately, Mutty and others launched a people's veto, which allows citizens to gather signatures in an effort to overturn a new law.

The law is scheduled to take effect in mid-September, but will be put on hold until after the election if the signatures are validated.

Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for Maine Freedom to Marry, which supports gay marriage, said he disagrees with Mutty that people find it hard to talk about gay marriage.

"Marriage equality for committed same-sex couples is easy to talk about," he said. "These couples and families have built their lives together."

But Connolly agrees with Mutty on one point.

"This is an emotional issue for people," he said, adding: "especially for the committed gay and lesbian couples who have spent their lives together but have been denied the legal rights and the dignity that comes with marriage equality," he said.

Already, emotions have played out in a public hearing attended by more than 3,000 people; in a legislative committee room, where a woman was removed after yelling at lawmakers; and on the floor of the Maine House of Representatives, where a legislator tearfully spoke of her gay daughter but said she ultimately could not support gay marriage.

Those leading the repeal effort say they have been insulted and harassed, both in public and at home.

Penny Morrell, of Belgrade, said she was called a "bigot and a hatemonger" while collecting signatures at the Belgrade town dump.

But despite what she described as "bumps in the road," she said it hasn't been hard to get the signatures.

Bob Emrich, a Baptist pastor who has helped lead the repeal effort, said his wife doesn't like to answer the phone because of name-calling and screaming at the other end of the line.

"I expected people to be emotional, but I really didn't expect not to feel safe in the little town of Plymouth," Emrich said.

He also recalled a recent late-night incident.

"Last night at 12:30, somebody banged real hard on our front door and ran off," he said. "People drive by and holler things."

Connolly said he would need to "see and hear" what Emrich is talking about before responding.

"I don't think anyone would intentionally interfere with the collection process," he said. "It's all secondhand hearsay."

Regardless, veterans of other statewide campaigns say expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples will be one of the most emotional ballot questions in state history -- if not the most.

Edie Smith, a veteran political activist of several campaigns, said the 2000 vote that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide, and the 2004 vote that would have banned bear baiting, were other tough issues for voters.

"Emotions can run deep, on even an issue you wouldn't think, like the bear campaign," said Smith, who led the effort to defeat the question.

The debate on physician-assisted suicide lasted a year, she said.

"That was extremely emotional in terms of the conversations around end-of-life care," she said. "Whether or not doctors should literally assist in suicide."

Voters rejected that question, as well as the ban on three different forms of bear hunting.

Dennis Bailey, who owns a public-relations firm and has led anti-casino campaigns, said emotions ran high on gambling issues as charges of racism surfaced.

Bailey recalled effective television ads from other campaigns -- particularly physician-assisted suicide and bear hunting -- that turned the tide of the vote.

Often, what changes minds is not the core of the debate, but a side issue that has an emotional impact, such as fear or the ability to identify with someone in a particular situation, he said.

"What both sides are looking for are the undecided voters," he said. "What is the issue that is going to make them go one way or another?"

Mutty said while a 1999 vote on late-term abortion and previous gay-rights campaigns have been difficult, this November's vote will be even harder for many people.

"This overshadows all of them in terms of emotion and sensitivity of the issue," he said. "Nothing to date comes anywhere near."

The original publication of this article was in the Central Maine Morning Centinal.