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Marriage equality history was made yesterday in Maine and Maryland. For the first time ever the electorate in a state has voted to grant same-sex couples the right to get married instead of voting to take it away. A truly remarkable political and social transformation has occurred.
Eight years ago, putting same-sex marriage on the ballot was seen as a guaranteed loser that was only used to drive conservative turnout. Just four years ago even the top Democratic presidential candidates avoided endorsing marriage equality, because it was thought to be too big a political liability. It was only three years ago that the voters in Maine rejected marriage equality in a referendum vote of 52.75 percent to 47.25 percent. But yesterday, the voters of Maine affirmatively voted to give same-sex couples the right to marry.
In less than a decade marriage equality went from a cultural wedge issue used by Republicans to drive turnout to an idea supported by a majority of the electorate in several states. What was once nearly unthinkable is now reality. It will still be several years before all Americans will have marriage equality, but serious progress has been made in a remarkably short period of time. This victory is a powerful example that the politics around marriage equality have changed dramatically.
I would like to congratulate all the couples in Maine and Maryland who will be getting married in the coming months.
Photo by Ernst Vikne under Creative Commons license
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Also, in Minnesota, the Constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman was defeated. Including ballots that were blank on the issue (which count as “No” votes) the margin was about 14,000 votes out of over 2.9M cast. The voter ID amendment also lost and by a bigger margin, which was unexpected.
Proud to be Marylander today. We also approved the bill to enable children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition in our colleges.
The people of Maine are religious people in the best sense that can be made of that adjective. They will listen to the word of God in private matters. But any argument that favors the government dictating private matters is going to lose in Maine. What is more private than love and marriage? I’m not a resident of Maine but I know how they think and it does not surprise me at all that they would be the first electorate to go this way.
well…. as a gay man I can tell you that only worked because the dem party sat around and did nothing. Mostly we were told to STFU and go hide.