plan b
Maine Gov. John Baldacci Has No Idea What To Do If Voters Say No to Marriage
It’s a little bit amusing to see Maine’s Gov. John Baldacci speak so succinctly about how important it is to give gays their marriage rights, when once upon a time (read: a few months ago) he wasn’t so definitive about things. But hey, he signed the bill, did what he needed him to do, so all is forgotten. Well, it will be if Maine says “No On 1″; because Baldacci has no “back-up plan” to speak of.
unsurprisingly, the tone of this post is appalling. This guy stuck his neck out for us just a few months ago and it’s not good enough for Queerty. He shouldn’t be attacked by us as well as the right. How can we keep straight allies when (some of us) are so quick to turn on them?
Furthermore, you don’t telegraph your strategy at this point. If people who support SSM feel there is a ‘plan b’ they are less likely to go out and vote, or the right can use it as a lightening rod to increase their turnout (harder politically to enact that backup plan if 70% vote against marriage instead of 51%). He dodges the question, he never said he doesn’t have a backup plan.
Any workaround should “no on 1″ pass would likely not start in the governor’s office anyway. It would start in court or back in the legislature.
She got her stats wrong. We won one in Arizona in 2006. Yes, we lost in the rematch in 2008, but we DID have one win in Arizona in 2006.
Also, the “backup plan” is already pretty well-defined. The Maine legislature passed a state ENDA twice and had it repealed by the voters twice before it finally “stuck” the third time. If we lose on Tuesday, the legislature just passes it again.
Her stats aren’t wrong in that all 30 states to take up the issue have voted against it. If you want to count Arizona twice, you’d have to call it 31 tries.
That said, the Arizona “win” in 2006 wasn’t a win for marriage so much as it was for civil unions and domestic partnerships. Voters weren’t prepared to do away with ALL forms of same-sex unions, so they opted to only ban marriage two years later. They were still opposed to marriage the entire time, including in 2006.
These states when they enact gay marriage need to also pass a law that says there may not be a referendum that seeks to take away civil rights for any minority group.