They may not be literally occupying, but they are winning hearts and minds and... they've done it! With more than two months to go, EqualityMaine and friends have gathered more than 60,000 signatures, 3000 more than the 57,000+ necessary to put marriage equality on the ballot in Maine in November of 2012.
Their goal is 80,000 signatures; I hope they get 100,000. But there is almost no doubt now that with more than two months still to go they will have plenty of valid signatures.
Here are some excerpts from the email I just received from EqualityMaine with this excellent news:
As you know, we've been hard at work gathering signatures, holding one-on-one conversations and continuing our research into the most effective messages and messengers to help us change hearts and minds and build on our current 53% majority of support for marriage. We're excited to share that we've crossed 60,000 signature threshold, which means we only have 20,000 more to go to meet our goal (i.e. to get enough of a cushion to ensure that we have the 57,000+ certified signatures required to proceed with a ballot initiative in 2012.)
They've also got a couple of campaign ads they've just made that they want opinions about.
In part of our efforts to continue our public education and and take the most persuasive personal stories to the masses, GLAD recently created two TV commercials that we--along with EqualityMaine--are trying to raise enough money to get on the air....
We're currently conducting online focus groups to further test these ads and make final tweaks to them before they go on TV.
Here's the ads and descriptions of them from the email.
Lifelong Mainers Paul and Jeanette Rediker weren't quite sure how they felt about marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
But when their daughter came out to them, they knew that they wanted her to be able to spend her life with the person she loves and get married at home with her family beside her. They came to support the freedom to marry because, as Paul said, "we love our daughter."
Self-described "Rush Limbaugh conservative" and Methodist pastor Michael Gray and his wife, Robyn, struggled with the issue of same-sex couples marrying. But after seeing firsthand the personal examples of loving, committed gay and lesbian couples and praying about it together, they say their faith informs them differently now.
Now we need your help to bring stories like Paul and Jeanette's and Michael and Robyn's into living rooms across the state, which is why today, we're launching our first two TV commercials that share stories of real Mainers who support the freedom to marry!
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If you'd like to comment on the ads you can leave your observations in this diary's comment section and I'll make sure the people at EqualityMaine see them.
Click here if you would like to donate to the effort.
I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but this is really important. This will be the first time that proponents of marriage equality will have taken a measure to the ballot. This will be the first time we will be challenging NOM and the bigots on our own terms; we are not letting them create the initiative language to be voted on nor define the when and where of battle.
With a victory in Maine, LGBT organizations in states like Oregon, Washington, California and Hawaii, each of which has majorities or pluralities or registered voters in favor of same-sex marriage, will be less afraid to let the people vote for marriage equality. With DOMA being assaulted in the courts, in Congress and in the court of popular opinion, and with marriage equality ready to spread further around the world and in the United States, NOM and their allies are toast; it's just a question of how quickly they crisp. A real victory at the polls will due much to catalyze the process.