Those first few days were the worst. I was scared. I was depressed. I felt less than human.
Prop H8 had passed in California. And even though I didn't have any immediate marriage plans, I nonetheless felt like all my future hopes and dreams were ripped away from me. I didn't know what to do... Until I got active in working to undo the damage.
Yet even though I'm seeing progress in my new home state, I still have raw feelings about what happened in California last fall. I still have wounds that are only starting to heal.
Thankfully, No on 1 didn't pull any punches in calling out the ugly and baseless lies that have simply been recycled from Massachusetts and California by the same far right Republican consultants that ran Yes on H8 in California. Still, they need our help to keep these ads on the air so that the truth isn't drowned out by Yes on H8/Yes on 1's lies.
Please donate whatever you can to help keep this and other No on 1 ads on the air in Maine. You can also help by signing up to volunteer. The poll numbers are very close, so every dollar and/or hour donated helps!
First, I want to thank everyone who contributed for me to go to Maine next month and blog on the ground about this campaign. If you haven't chipped in yet, you can do so here. Thank you so much for your generosity, and look for some great content here at OpenLeft in just a few weeks!
Earlier this week I wrote about the anti-equality campaign's new ad in Maine, which is a carbon copy of the Yes on 8 campaign's ad in California. The two campaigns use the same consulting firm, Schubert Flint Public Affairs. The ad was about how marriage equality would force school districts to teach the principles of equality in local schools (oh, the horror).
Our side hit back, and the ad was universally debunked as misleading at best and a lie at worst.
Gerald at Dirigo Blue called the Maine Department of Education, which then released a statement saying a change in Maine's definition of marriage would not require local school districts to change their teaching requirements.
A journalist at the Kennebec Journal, reprinted in the Portland Press Herald (the state's largest paper), denounced the ad as false and misleading. So did the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, and the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Charla Bansley, the seemingly worried public school teacher featured in the ad, was uncovered by Jeremy Hooper at his blog to be (a) the state director of Concerned Women for America of Maine (b) a teabagger (c) a private Christian school teacher (d) Someone who delights in saying rabidly crazy things regarding marriage and family.
Maine legislative leaders, several former attorneys general and law experts wrote a memorandum ripping apart the argument in the advertising as completely false.
Our side successfully hit back against the right-wingers in the journalistic department. Today, the No On 1 campaign is hitting back on TV:
There are multiple ways to help take this further. If you're in Maine or know someone who is, ask them to sign up for the No On 1 e-mail list, and to write a letter to the editor on how false the other side's ads are. If you're not in Maine, go to your Facebook wall and/or Twitter feed, and post the response ad (here's the link) and this link to sign up for the No On 1 campaign. Because even if you don't know anyone in Maine, you may have friends out there on the internets who do. If you're either, you can go vote in this local FOX poll (right side of the page).
I wrote yesterday about an interconnected movement. Fighting back- bloggers, you, and No On 1- together is how we can string together victories that demoralize and help defund the right. Let's get it done.
As many of you know, I've been writing about the marriage equality ballot initiative in Maine for some time. I've been writing about this campaign not only because I care as a gay man, but because I care about the broader progressive movement.
As I wrote here, I think a win or loss in Maine will have a profound impact on the LGBT movement. A loss will mean the right-wing is batting 1.000 on marriage initiatives since 2004- through constitutional amendments, Prop 8, and now this. It gives the haters something to go back to their right-wing funders with, it shapes the media narrative that the country isn't "ready" for gay marriage. And it means couples will remain second-class citizens.
But I also think it will impact non-LGBT progressives. Here's why:
I often hear the theory that issue movements are disconnected- that a win or loss on marriage equality has nothing to do with, say, a win or loss on climate change. Ergo, the straight individual living outside of Maine won't be impacted by what happens in Maine. I don't think that's true.
The conservative movement is very interconnected. The right-wing foundation which funds anti-LGBT orgs also funds clean coal "studies", right-wing press outlets, and more. A win on any of these issues keeps right-wing money flowing overall, while defeats help to interrupt right-wing resources in other areas. Resources won't dry up, as there will always be die-hard activists, but they can lessen if there are across-the-board losses for conservatives on health care this fall, on marriage in Maine, on cap-and-trade later this year.
For our side, if we string losses together on issue after issue, it becomes demoralizing. It's demoralizing to movement activists as well as to many donors and foundations. Doubtful? Think of how many people you know who said they haven't felt so inspired- or even voted- since Kennedy in 1980, or McGovern in 1972, or even Kennedy in 1960, until Barack Obama. Winning and losing matters, and it matters across a multi-issue plain.
Because I believe in this inter-connectedness, and the critical nature Maine plays in a movement of which OpenLeft is a part, I'm going to travel to Maine next month to blog on the ground about the campaign. I'm traveling in conjunction with the New Organizing Institute's National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative, another critical part of our movement. I'll be doing video interviews with key folks on the ground- including campaign staff, bloggers, traditional media, activists, and even a right-winger or two. I'll be talking to local voters, and sending back lessons on the politics of marriage equality, something we're going to be looking at here in DC very soon. I'm also hoping to explore how the campaign impacts progressives across the country, and shed a little light on Maine politics, including our favorite senior Senator there.
For this, I need to ask for your help.
As you know, such a venture has expenses, I'd like to ask for your support to help cover travel expenses (the rest will go to OpenLeft projects). I assure you that your dollars will be going to generating quality, interesting daily content here at OpenLeft on the Maine campaign, as well as instructive and productive lessons on our progressive movement overall. Between coming to the finish line on health care next month, getting a view from on the ground in Maine, and continuing to build an inside-outside progressive movement, I guarantee OpenLeft will be in its element.
And surprise, surprise, Schubert Flint, the same consultants who worked for 2, 4, 6, 8, Let's All Go Discriminate Yes on 8 campaign in California, are consulting for Yes On 1, the campaign trying to strip LGBT couples of their rights.
Our side should hammer back with the message that Maine voters aren't drones whose buttons can be pushed by the exact same, word-for-word ad in California. A new ad, perhaps web ad, with the two cut side by side is one idea. If what the folks I know on the ground tell me- that negative ads in Maine don't work well above and beyond what you would expect in other states- there is potential to blow this up into a backlash.
Especially since Jeremy Hooper points out the "teacher" in the Maine ad, Charla Bansley, is actually the state director of Concerned Women for America of Maine, a teacher at Calvary Christian Chapel School, and has worked on behalf of anti-marriage equality campaign, Yes On 1. Wow.
Hi, folks. Meet Nancy Randolph from Maine -- a very nice lady I've talked to a lot in the last week as we prepared a new TV ad released today.
Before her first husband died of cancer, they thought they had great health insurance...until their insurance company denied him needed care. That drove them into bankruptcy.
Now, the senator who Nancy voted for -- Republican Olympia Snowe -- opposes the public health insurance option. And Nancy has something to say about that.
Click here to see the PCCC and DFA's new TV ad featuring Nancy holding Olympia Snowe accountable.
Then, help put it on TV.
Our goal is to flood Maine and DC with $100,000 worth of these ads -- to really ramp up the pressure on Snowe. In just a few hours, we're $32,000$34,000$36,000 $45,000 of the way there -- but we do need your help.
As you know, this a critical time to put pressure on Snowe.
All week, the powerful Senate Finance Committee will take important health care votes -- including on whether to include a public option. Snowe will be a key vote on the Finance Committee.
Markos' recent poll shows Maine voters favor a public option 2 to 1. Among independent voters, it's 3 to 1. Yet Snowe urged President Obama to take the public option off the table "because it's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate."
Olympia Snowe represents a progressive state -- and she needs to be accountable to her constituents. Click here to help the Progressive Change Campaign Committee & Democracy for America put our new accountability ad on TV in Maine right now.
"Yes on 1" - the Maine campaign to repeal marriage equality - aired its first San Francisco produced ad this week, which was kind of a dud. It was like the first "Yes on 8" ad in California - minus the Gavin Newsom footage. Within 24 hours, the "No on 1" campaign aired a strong rebuttal - in contrast to the 12 days it took "No on 8" to respond. Rather than simply deny the "gay marriage in public schools" charge, the ad accused outsiders of harming kids - and that schools protect "all Maine families," allowing our side to stay on the offensive. With 53 days to go before the election, a new poll today shows Question 1 narrowly ahead by 48-46. Supporters of marriage equality should realize that every effort will make a difference - and that we now have an opportunity to finally defeat anti-gay bigotry at the ballot box.
Despite the recent attacks on LGBT Mainers, No on 1 is still within a striking distance of victory. However, it will obviously take a lot of work to overcome this deficit and finish out on top. The Yes on 1 anti-equality campaign is already starting the "scare campaign", and we need to be ready to fight back and win.
If this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.
Yes, I know this is Maine. But remember, this can happen anywhere. It happened here in Nevada. It happened in California. It happened in Oregon. It happened in Arizona. It's happened in states all over the place, but now we have a chance to turn the tide in Maine.
So the Hey Hey Ho Ho Equality Has Got to GoYes on 1 campaign in Maine came out with their first ad, and the good news is that, well, it's not so great.
Aside from being a classic fear ad, it strikes me as wholly inauthentic. I don't know what's with the Boston College expert walking around his office (did they just flip through their rolodex and pick a name at random?), freaky Thriller music and lots of words running across the screen all at once. Contrasted to the first two No On 1/Protect Maine Equality ads below with two authentic families, it's a dud.
Here's the bad news. The Break Up FamiliesYes on 1 campaign's ad buy is $700,000, enough for each voter to see that ad 20 times.
But there's also some more good news. The No on 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign just launched a peer-to-peer fundraising tool to use to hit up friends, family and colleagues you have. I've played with it a bit, and it's pretty easy to use.
I just thought about it, and I have plenty of LGBT friends who are not invested in this campaign because it's way up in Maine, but should be, the same way we all care who wins a random primary election somewhere else. I believe the Maine campaign- particularly in the wake of the Prop 8 loss- will be an important moment in progressive and LGBT politics. If they win, their side is batting 1.000 on marriage ballot votes since 2004. That's critical for the haters to keep receiving support and funding from the right-wing. Our side will also be severely demoralized after this and Prop 8. If we win, we preserve the rights of Mainer families and have an important victory to take to the bank. We have to win.
That's why I'm writing tonight, using this tool, to ask them to support a campaign that will affect us all. And you'll support quality ads and what I and many colleagues know to be a very good campaign staff. I hope you'll join me.
A little while back, I wrote about how the haters in Maine are using fear of "gay sex education" in public schools as a weapon to scare people into stripping rights away from gay couples in Maine. Here's the bulk of the original e-mail Stand For Marriage Maine sent out:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Today, Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald picks up the theme debunks the e-mail while ripping the chair of Stand For Marriage Maine, Marc Mutty, a new one:
All of which raises an intriguing question: Who really wrote this - and what have they done with the old Marc Mutty? Mutty was out sick Thursday and thus unavailable to explain what's causing him to see things in Maine's same-sex marriage law that, from any reality-based angle, simply aren't there.
But the Rev. Bob Emrich of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth, a member of Stand for Marriage Maine's executive committee, said the group stands by Mutty's claim that the same-sex marriage statute will require "explicit homosexual instruction in the classroom."
One problem. Emrich and Mutty are wrong. Nowhere in the law do the words "school" or "classroom" even appear.
And if you're looking for phrases like "explicit homosexual instruction" hidden in some obscure statutory subsection, trust me - it's not there. Not even in code.
[...]
In a statement issued via e-mail Thursday, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager of No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, predicted that Maine voters will "see through these cynical campaign tactics" by Mutty & Co. as the debate heats up in the coming weeks.
"This is an attempt to divert attention and raise unfounded issues," said Connolly. "Question 1 has nothing to do with schools and no one is voting on curriculum in November."
Connolly is right - and anyone who's taken the time to carefully read Maine's same-sex marriage law knows it.
Including, of all people, Marc Mutty.
This hits the nail right on the head. We still have a fight on our hands, though. The Catholic Bishop in Maine is taking up a second collection in churches around the state for money to fight LGBT equality. Karen Ocamb, who in my opinion has done the best reporting on the optics of the Prop 8 fight in CA, has a brilliant expose at Dirigo Blue on how the same entire religious right that mobilized there is setting up shop in Maine. The haters in Maine are using the same consulting firm, Schubert Flint Public Affairs, that the Yes on 8 campaign used in CA.
Last year, California sent more Obama campaign volunteers to the swing states than any other part of the country - in part due to a website called "Travel for Change." Now, the same activists who organized that effort are working to send volunteers to Maine - where in 55 days, voters will determine the fate of marriage equality. The "No on 1" campaign has welcomed volunteers who can travel to Maine and commit to working for at least a week. Now, thanks to "Travel for Change," supporters can donate money or airline miles to make that possible. Many Californians dejected at the passage of Proposition 8 want to help, and with "Travel for Change" they now can get the resources to make a real difference in Maine. As the right treats Maine as ground zero in their effort to halt the march towards marriage equality, defeating Question 1 on November 3rd can have a national impact in the fight for same-sex marriage.
Stand For Marriage Maine, the right-wingers trying to repeal same-sex marriage equality in Maine, just sent out this awesome mailer:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Gay sex education?! They teach that now?! Where can I sign up?
Jokes aside, the haters will lie and smear their way into victory during this campaign. Conflating marriage equality into "mandatory gay sex education" is insulting and a horrific exaggeration, but that's what they do. These are real families with real children being raised just like other kids. Nowhere in the legislation are there any kind of required classes. The right-wing has always used fear as a weapon, and it's fear of instilling values here.
Our side needs to counter it with the truth. This new ad launching after Labor Day is the way to do it. Sam Putnam, the teenager with two moms in this new ad from the No On 1 campaign, does not look like he has gay sex horns growing out of his head.
Maine residents will start to vote in mid-October. That's just six weeks away. The race to define this thing is on, and as I've heard from all my Maine contacts, it needs to be "live and let live." That message is up for grabs. With mail like this, the right-wingers are pushing their own version of that. We have to push ours.
Last night, No On 1 was added as the very first race on the Orange to Blue page from DailyKos. Jesse Connolly, the campaign manager of the No On 1 campaign, posted at DailyKos today about the campaign, thanking the netroots, including us, for helping raise the money to put ads like this on the air. Please rec and comment. Let's tip our hat back to him from OpenLeft and define this fight for Maine residents first, before the other side does.
Good news from Maine- the No on 1 campaign has just released its first TV ads, which will run statewide. I'm told by folks at Dirigo Blue, a Maine progressive blog, along with Joe Sudbay and the campaign team that the attitude in Maine is very "live and let live". The haters will try and push the line that those support marriage equality are "enforcing their values on us." Good for the No On 1 campaign to try and take that message and make it their own first. We have to define the debate and emphasize that the haters are trying to tell LGBT people how to live, not the other way around. This ad, I think, helps accomplish that:
And here's the other ad, which illustrates a teenager with two moms testifying on behalf of marriage equality, asking that his family not be broken up.
Now let's help keep them on the air. I think this is critical, because in Maine, we're going to see tons of ads pressuring Snowe on health care crowding out the campaign. Plus, the later ads in the marriage campaign will be the ones on which voters are going to press the "mute" button when they hit their limit. So the earliest ads define the campaign, and that means we've got to push these ones far and wide.
Got off a call on the Maine campaign to protect marriage equality, with a few updates:
I wrote last week that the campaign had a $10,000 matching grant from a donor in Maine. The donor then increased the match to $20,000, and we hit that by this past Friday. Thanks to all who gave, that is huge.
The co-chair of the anti-marriage equality group in Maine, Stand For Marriage Maine Coalition, compared LGBT couples to trees, saying:
A barren field full of stumps has had all its trees treated equally, to be sure. But that makes as much sense as looking at the extreme changes to Maine's marriage law approved recently by Gov. Baldacci and calling it marriage equality.
AUGUSTA, MAINE -- Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, an LGBT watchdog group, sent a letter detailing alleged election law violations by Stand for Marriage Maine to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The request for an immediate investigation was sent yesterday to the Jonathan Wayne, the Commission's Executive Director and a copy to attorney General Janet Mills.
The nine page complaint (below) and fourteen attachments spell out how the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Knights of Columbus of Washington, DC and James Dobson's Focus on the Family had contributors give the money to their organizations, and then they in turn gave the money to the Stand for Marriage Maine in order to hide the identity of the donors.
[...]
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (Mormon Church) created the National Organization for Marriage specifically to qualify and pass Prop 8 in California. Now they have NOM doing their bidding in Maine, Iowa and all over the Northeast," concluded Karger.
The campaign has set up a "Volunteer Vacation", a great idea, to help folks who want to help with the campaign go to Maine for a week. Immersing onesself in a campaign is really a great, and useful, experience. I did so in 2006 in NY-29 (Massa) managing field and not only was it really a get-away, I learned a lot.
I want to reiterate that this is literally a 10-week campaign until Election Day. It's going to go by fast. The campaign has set up four weeks in October to work, and will provide you with housing. We're also working with TravelForChange.org, which received donations of 11 million airline miles to help Obama volunteers travel last cycle, to help folks financially get to Maine. More on this soon. If you're all set to go with booking your own plane ticket now, sign up here. I'm looking at going up in late October. As Joe Sudbay (who's from Maine) wrote, the folks on the ground are the best, most experienced pros in the state, so you'll be in good hands.
If you haven't already, sign up for the No On 1 campaign's e-mail list. And ask a few friends to as well.
This fall, Maine will face a special election. And no, this isn't just any special election. Once more, LGBT families are under attack. This time, the same H8ful forces that stripped millions of Californians of their Constitutional rights want to do the same evil thing in Maine.
This must stop. We must stop the radical right's assault on LGBT families, and we have a chance to do so in Maine this year.
When I was at Netroots Nation last week, I sat in on a meeting organized to work on the No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign to protect the recently-passed marriage equality legislation in Maine from repeal. Aside from being a gay man and caring about this very much, I was impressed by one big thing: that in what is an election less than ten weeks out, the No On 1 campaign sent four staff members, including their campaign manager and finance director. I'm not much the cynical "oh, they've just after the netroots ATM" type. Rather, I've talked to my friend Joe Sudbay over at AMERICABlog about them, who is from Maine, and knows many of the staff personally. These folks respect the netroots, respect our ideas and suggestions on the campaign (including lessons learned from folks who worked on Prop 8 in California), and are asking in good faith for our help.
Exhibit A is their first TV spot now up, which gets everything right about how to get at the "ick" factor of LGBT couples in an ad that the Prop 8 committee got wrong.
It shows straight individuals and straight families allied with LGBT couples (did you catch the word "together" repeated three times?). It shows LGBT couples in loving relationships. The Maine residents featured talk about progressive values of respect, fairness, and how LGBT families can make loving and committed families too. I watched it several times.
Losing Prop 8 hurt, and the one other thing I sensed at the meeting was that there are a ton of folks itching to get it right- uphold marriage in a statewide vote, and send a message to the rest of the nation. And right the mistakes we made in California. I want to do that as much as I am concerned that if we lose a second vote, it will not only depress activism and enthusiasm on our side, but will embolden the hate groups and individuals to keep on giving when one of them points to two major successful campaigns in the last two years to say, look, we know how to win these things. Give to us and we'll make sure we get it done in other states. And folks who are undecided around the country will take note of the results.
One of the worst results is that it will make the Obama Administration, which is already cautious and timid on LGBT issues, even more cautious.
We can't let that happen. The right-wingers- National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Diocese have already pumped hundreds of thousands in. The Mormons have done it through more covert means. The same consulting firm that ran the Yes on 8 campaign in California- Schubert Flint- is consulting for them. We have to match it. And I just learned that if we raise $10,000 by Friday, a Maine resident will double it. Let's get it started.
In just 77 days, Maine voters can set the national agenda for marriage equality. The state legislature passed same-sex marriage earlier this year, but now the right has collected enough signatures to put a referendum ("Question One") on the November 2009 ballot - and has hired the same political consultants who successfully passed Proposition 8. Supporters of marriage equality, however, are determined not to repeat the same mistakes we made in California - and will run an inclusive field campaign with a pro-active and pre-emptive message that (with the right resources) can bring about victory. It does not cost a lot to win campaigns in Maine (only $3 million), and voter turnout is expected to only be about 500,000 people. In other words, the campaign is winnable - but has not yet received the national attention it deserves. While Californians are divided on whether to repeal Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012, they can set aside their differences by helping us win in Maine. If we prevail on November 3rd, it will be easier to take our rights back in California.
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