Brody's Notes... Maine Voters Repeal Law Allowing Gay Marriage As Washington State Voters Narrowly Approve Domestic Partnership Law

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Nov 4 | A year after Proposition 8 in a heavily contested race in California, voters in Maine delivered another blow to LGBT Equality Rights by voting to repeal the recently enacted law that allowed Gay marriage.

With 88 percent of all precincts reporting in the early morning hours, over 52 percent of Maine's voters approved the ballot referendum bringing to a close an expensive and closely watched campaign. Polls conducted had suggested that the results would be very close. The outcome to the race was thought to have significant political impact nationally to the LGBT Equality Rights movement and was especially disappointing as the New England region had been seen as friendly to the issue with neighboring New Hampshire and Vermont having legalised Gay marriage laws.

Throughout the course of the oft times bitter campaign, supporters and LGBT Equality Rights organisations had banked on Maine's reputation as a "live and let live" state with special emphasis that Gay people deserved equal protection and treatment under the law. Opponents, including the Roman Catholic Church which went so far as to pass collection plates in parishes all around Maine similar to the successful efforts of the Mormon Church in California's Prop 8 battle last year, stressed that should the referendum prevail, Gay marriage would be taught in Maine's public schools.

Early reporting from Washington showed that in sharp contrast to the Maine referendum, voters there narrowly approved a ballot initiative that expands legal protections for same-sex couples. With fewer than half of all ballots counted, with the state's most populous county King County [Seattle is county seat.] reporting in with a much wider margin, results were showing that 52 percent of voters approved the measure.

All of the state's thirty nine counties except for one can vote by mail ballot which can be postmarked as late as election day, so a final result will probably not be known until Friday according to elections officials there.