From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Postscript

"Please, sir, may I have another?"

The lesson we learned last night in Maine is pretty simple: if you want to deny the right of gay people to get married, just put it to a popular vote. Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut---I believe they'd all vote it down, too, if given the opportunity. Let's not kid ourselves...this is gay marriage. And to well over half the people in this country in late 2009, you might as well call it pig vomit.

No minds were changed here over the course of the last five months. If the 'No' campaign had been tougher and the 'Yes' campaign had been softer, the result would've been the same. And that is to say: dead wrong. But we are a country that is dead wrong about a lot of things, especially on social issues. We love our comfort zones. We love the status quo. We love saying that all people are created equal, but not actually treating them equal. Things is good enough the way they is. That's a tough nut to crack.

To many in this state, we have just insulated ourselves against having to see two dudes in wedding dresses charge down the aisle of their local church singing, "Here Comes the Bride" and then racing to the local kindergarten to continue the gay recruiting process. (Gotta indoctrinate 'em while they're young, y'know---we learned that by watching organized religion.) They have just voted to avoid something icky. You can pick apart the campaign strategies and tactics seven ways to Sunday, but you'll always come back to that fact: fifty three percent of voters didn’t vote 'Yes.' They voted 'Ick.' And it is the 'Ick factor' (call it the gay version of the so-called "Bradley Effect") that confounded the number crunchers. It's easy to overlook---but it's very real and can be counted on to add a minimum of 3-5 points to the other team's scoreboard.

People are asking---wisely, from a safe distance---how Michael and I are feeling today. We're bummed, of course. When half a million people barge into your home, raid your fridge, drain your liquor cabinet ( not happy about that), jump up and down on your sofa, and then announce they've decided you can't become a dues-paying member of their club because you're a little too weird for their taste, it stings a bit. But this isn’t the first time our civil rights have been yanked from us by our neighbors, and it may not be the last.

And yet---here comes the golden ray of sunshine---I'm HOPEFUL! In fact, it is impossible for me to get too down about this. First, what's done is done. Second, Bacardi---it’s what's for breakfast. And third, 47 percent of Mainers are cool with gay marriage---that's as high as it's ever been, and it ain't goin' down. Which leads me to my next paragraph.

This morning the words of America's first openly-gay Episcopal Bishop, V. Gene Robinson---who has endured bigotry of the worst kind, including an assassination attempt---are soothing my savage manboobs. Robinson visited Portland several weeks ago to talk about Question 1. He raised the all-too-real possibility that things wouldn’t go our way this time. And now that the results are in and the vote didn’t go our way, his words are helping me this morning. A lot.

He said that we've already won this fight, it's just a question of timing. Here's what he means. Look at this result from last night, courtesy of Adam Bink at Open Left. It is the only thing I've shed tears over this morning, and they are happy ones:

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Final numbers are in from [University of Maine]-Orono campus- 81% No, 19% Yes.

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A 'No' vote was a vote to keep the same-sex marriage law in place. Look at that: 81 percent No, 19 percent Yes. That's the future of gay rights in America. It's coming. It's on our doorstep. It's just a matter of time. All Schubert-Flint and NOM and the Catholic church did last night was kick the can down the road a bit. As Bishop Robinson said:

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"We're in this for the long haul. Keep your energy up and your focus clear. We can be in it for the long haul because we know how this is gonna end: full equality."

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Or, to quote Dan Savage:

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"It's like 'Gay Survivor,' we're going to outlive, outlast, and outsmart the bigots."

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Don’t think for a second that they don’t know it. And don't think for a second that, despite their smiling faces this morning, it doesn't haunt their dreams.

So that's where I am this morning. Thank you so much for your support and kind comments. A full C&J returns tomorrow, but below the fold is a look back at our reaction when history of another kind was made one year ago today as---say it with me, teabaggers!---Barack Obama destroyed the hapless Palin/McCain ticket to become the first African-American president of the United States. That's worth re-celebrating. That's worth smiling about.

Cheers and Jeers enters the wayback machine in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]