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03/31/2008

Maine's main pain maintains train of disdain

by Jeremy Hooper

Maine's most indefatigable gay rights foe, Mike Heath, has begun rallying his troops in anticipation for yet another ignoble attempt to stem the tide of reasoned progress. In a new post to his site, Heath says the following about the gay community's goals and the reasons he sees for why such need to be halted in the Pine Tree State:

We must launch a referendum to stop Maine from endorsing the special legal right to sexual promiscuity. So called "gay" activists want to rob our civilization of the legal and social concept of marriage. They want to replace it with a very special (in the bad sense) construct called civil unions.



Everyone has the right to marry already. Nobody should have legal rights that are premised on being sexually promiscuous! NO SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR HOMOSEXUALITY! PERIOD!!

Uhm, legal rights "premised on being sexually promiscuous"? Gee, and here we thought we were pushing for the freedom to marry the partner of either gender of one's choosing, not for marriage that's limited only to those who've f***ed at least ten people in the past month. What fools we have been!



But then after those "wise" words regarding the "special" right to marry someone who you actually want to have sex with, Heath goes on to (a) detail his plans for keeping gays' ring fingers free of metal, and (b) solicit reader opinions to help him shape his agenda. He says:

We are going to need hundreds of volunteers to gather signatures. We will gather signatures at the polls in June and November. We will present our petition to the government in January 2009. Our referendum -- which will prevail at the ballot, I have no doubt of that -- will be voted by all the people of Maine in November of 2009.



Our referendum petition will prohibit recognition of civil unions and same sex marriage, at the very least.



At this point this is just me talking. I need to hear from you. I need your ideas. Most of all, I need your show of support to be persuaded that I should even recommend this to my board.



The forces that want same sex marriage are gathering meaningless signed post cards to present to the Legislature next year. We need to gather meaningful signatures.



If we spread the task across many churches and individuals we can do it without stressing anybody out.



Let's pull together and do the right thing. Let's say NO to special rights for homosexuality once and for all.



Email me at [email protected]

Okay, first off: We're a bit frightened by the whole "will prohibit recognition of civil unions and same sex marriage, at the very least " line. Because to be perfectly frank, to be gay is to never completely discount to what extreme place your opposition might take its campaigns of demonization. So when they say that denying marriage and even civil union equality, a HUGE issue for many LGBT people, is just the "very least" of what they have up their sleeve, we can't help but shiver when we think of what they might consider at the "very worst" end of their anti-gay spectrum. Does it involve exportation, cages, forced therapy? EEK!

But moving past our valid trepidation regarding our opposition's endgame: We're thinking that all of us who find peace in progress and tumult in discrimination have a responsibility to write Mike and tell him what we, the ones who are dehumanized by his rhetoric, would like to say about his falsely righteous endeavors. So whatdya say, "special" gays and their allies -- since Mike has handily provided his contact information, why don't we each drop him a calm yet firm message explaining how our equality is not "special," our sex lives are not innately "promiscuous," and our bodies and souls are not deserving of the cruel bombardments that he and his ilk have been firing at both for decades? After all, don't our lives matter when it comes to the matter of our lives?

Sure Mike probably won't listen, since the major problem of this so-called "culture war" is the anti-gay side's refusal to actually deal with the real, tangible human beings who are drastically affected by their actions. However, we can't help but believe that when all is quiet in their heads, some of what we say HAS to register. Rhetoric is easy to print and pass off to unsuspecting folks. But it's much more difficult to convince your brain that what you know in your heart to be bullshit is truly "fact." And it's also more difficult to shun a person to their face, either real or virtual, than it is to midlessly tell a like-minded choir that the dude who lives down the road and doesn't bother anyone is a "sick pervert" in need of saving!

So let's do it -- let's give him a face and dare him to shun. And if he does spit ion your eye, by all means let us know!

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