The Homosexual Rights Battle in Maine: Looking Back so we can Move Forward

The Roman Catholic Church's political action committee put out a short statement last week, the day after I announced I would lead the People's Veto of Senator Damon's genderless marriage bill. Here is what they wrote:

The People's Veto is currently under serious consideration. Be assured that we will keep you updated on a regular basis. Just as the hundreds of thousands of Mainers who support traditional marriage range across all faiths and political philosophies, so, too, will the coalition to defeat this law at the polls. Your efforts will most likely be needed again in the near future, and we'll be in touch shortly to tell you more. --Most Sincerely, Maine Marriage Initiative

This is good news.

What galls me about the current situation is that everything has developed pretty much as we predicted it would twenty years ago. We have sacrificed much, standing virtually alone up to now, to tell everyone who will listen why we object to laws that affirm sex outside of marriage. And, when we've been up front and honest with the people of Maine we've won. When we've tried to be too clever we've lost. More on that in a bit.

We will win this People's Veto because we don't play the games associated with politics in Maine. We don't care about political parties, or the careers of politicians. The people will reject Senator Damon's genderless marriage proposal because they will hear the unvarnished loving truth about this law, finally.

The Legislative fight on marriage is lost. The Governor signed the bill. The Maine Family Policy Council will be gathering signatures for the People's Veto. We will be working with all citizens who wish to repeal this horrible law. While we are not interested in hurling epithets we understand that this issue produces strong emotions in people on both sides. Those emotions must be given political expression. In Maine we call that the freedom of speech. The Maine Family Policy Council enthusiastically endorses free speech on both sides in the coming debate. Our tolerance goes both ways, unlike the folks who use that word to silence Christianity, common sense, freedom of conscience and decency.

A word about my good friend, Paul Madore, the leader of the Maine Grassroots Coalition. Paul is a Roman Catholic father of nine who isn't perfect, nor is he drop-dead gorgeous like Miss California. He is, however, drop-dead gutsy like his namesake, Paul the Apostle.

And, he is more loyal to his Roman Catholic faith than anybody I've ever met in my entire life. He loves his church, and doesn't shrink from speaking his mind. Make no mistake about it, this is a fight. This is not a discussion, debate or fellowship meeting. This is a win or lose contest.

As one of the greatest men of my father's generation, James Dobson, once said, "To the victor goes the next generation."

I am fighting for my grandchildren yet to be born, and hoping and praying that this corrupt, feminized culture that is poisoning the thinking and values of us all doesn't win over any of my three sons. I will never stop. The folks who want to make sodomy into a virtue and chastity into a vice will have to jail or kill me to stop me from objecting to their ideology.

Make no mistake, it is going to take that kind of dedication to reverse this slide.

Some have walked away from the fight for virtue in the area where it matters most in my generation -- the sanctity of the family. I'm sorry, but I will NEVER walk away from that contest. NEVER. I will stay faithful, loving and strong even if some leaders in the church decide not to be in order to emphasize the more politically correct task of helping poor folks in Africa (something I am doing later this year, by the way).

To compromise or soften my stand would be to abandon everything I hold dear in the Bible, and in my personal experience. Conscience will not permit it.

This has always been about what it is about! IT IS VERY SIMPLE. Sex outside of marriage is always wrong. Equal rights are guaranteed by the VIRTUE of each individual citizen, not by the government. It is unAmerican to believe anything else. Handshakes are what bind people. Marriage belongs to God and all of us, not to the government. The people will either save it or lose it.

We have believed that since 1990, and we have acted on that belief in front of a watching world. We will never stop.

As to the matter of being too clever, allow me to speak briefly to the campaigns of the past ten years. In 1998 we campaigned for Equal Rights and Against Special Rights. We did the same thing in 2001. We won both contests because we proclaimed a truth that the other side wants everyone to ignore. In 2005 I made a bone-headed political mistake. I decided we should talk about what they want us to be talking about -- marriage. I should not have recommended that. In politics you NEVER talk about what your opponent wants you to talk about.

The law under debate was the same one we had defeated twice previously, made slightly worse by the addition of transgendering (whatever that is). We should have stayed with our positive pro-equal rights, no special rights line of argument. I thought that if we brought marriage to the fore we would gain a few more votes. Alas, this gave the other side the opportunity to say we were misleading the public. There was a grain of truth to their argument. Apparently God didn't honor our cleverness.

The government's cause will lose this fight because now it IS about marriage. We will get over sixty percent of the vote, maybe as much as 70 percent after all the votes are counted.

Maine will be the high water mark of the homosexual rights movement in America. I will spill every remaining drop of political blood that I have to assure it. If this Peoples Veto doesn't stop their immature ranting about all things sexual then we will proceed to amend Maine's constitution, something I am loathe to do.

And rest assured, if the civil rights team and anti-free speech movement of so-called "hate crimes" advocates continues in its aggressive posture against the plain teachings of the Bible on sexuality we will shut them down as well. As public sentiment turns against the "sexual orientation" laws in coming years we will repeal them and return common sense to Maine's laws and culture.

Weak families mean a declining Maine. We won't allow that.

Now, send your VERY GENEROUS checks -- and we need lots of them -- to 70 Sewall Street, Augusta, Maine 04330. Make them out to "Marriage Matters in Maine."