UPDATED: Maine Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Maine is the latest state to legalize same-sex marriage.  The governor signed the bill today.  That makes five states that now allow same-sex marriage, and it means that every New England state — except Rhode Island — allows gay marriage.

From The Washington Post:

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s governor signed a freshly passed bill Wednesday approving gay marriage, making it the fifth state to approve the practice and moving New England closer to allowing it throughout the region.

New Hampshire legislators were also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor, who hasn’t indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, Rhode Island would be the region’s sole holdout.

The Maine Senate voted 21-13, with one absent, for a bill that authorizes marriage between any two people rather than between one man and one woman, as state law currently allows. The House had passed the bill Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, who hadn’t previously indicated how he would handle the bill, signed it shortly afterward. In the past, he said he opposed gay marriage but supported civil unions, which provide many benefits of marriage.

Debate was brief. Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, turned the gavel over to an openly gay member, Sen. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, to preside over the final vote.

Republican Sen. Debra Plowman of Hampden argued that the bill was being passed “at the expense of the people of faith.”

“You are making a decision that is not well-founded,” warned Plowman.

But Senate Majority Leader Philip Bartlett II said the bill does not compel religious institutions to recognize gay marriage.

“We respect religious liberties. … This is long overdue,” said Bartlett, D-Gorham.

Maine is now the fourth state in New England, to allow same-sex marriages. Connecticut enacted a bill after being ordered to allow gay marriages by the courts, and Vermont passed a bill over the governor’s veto.

New Hampshire’s House was also expected to vote on a bill Wednesday and send it to Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Massachusetts’ high court has ordered the state to recognize gay marriages. In Rhode Island, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced but is not expected to pass this year.

Outside New England, Iowa is recognizing gay marriages on court orders. The practice was briefly legal in California before voters banned it.

This really is huge news.  I am ecstatic.  Look at the news from the past few weeks: A unanimous Iowa Supreme Court overturned that state’s same-sex marriage ban.  Now four states in New England have voted — one over a governor’s veto — to allow gays the same marriage rights as everyone else.  It is indeed a sea change.

We still have a battle in California, unless the state Supreme Court does the right thing and overturns Proposition 8.  But if they don’t, same-sex marriage activists will be back at the ballot box next year to amend the state Constitution again.  We will have marriage rights in California.  It’s just unfortunate that it’s so easy to change the Constitution in this state, meaning that we have to go back to the people with a referendum on this issue.

So now, with 20% of states allowing gay marriage and more on deck, isn’t it time for the federal government to repeal DOMA?  I’d say that it’s past time, actually; thirteen years of that abominable law are enough.  I’ve said it over and over again — gay people deserve the same rights as everyone else.  We deserve the more than 1,000 federal benefits that opposite-sex couples enjoy.  I hope Congress and the president provide some real leadership on this very soon.

UPDATE:

I just came across this piece on The Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress should stay out of the gay marriage debate, adding that it isn’t the right time for Congress to decide whether married gay couples should have the right to federal benefits.

Her cool approach to the federal role comes as several states, plus the District of Columbia, have moved to recognize gay marriages.

“I don’t think the Congress should intervene [in the legalized states] in terms of their recognition of marriages, just as they shouldn’t intervene in New York and their recognition of marriages,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday.

Pelosi said that while the House was pursuing a human rights agenda, including last week’s passage of a hate crimes bill, the House was not going to address the question of whether legalized same-sex marriages would be afforded federal benefits.

“Right now our agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs,” she said.

You can hide behind the “jobs” meme all you want.  We know what the real issue is — fear.  (And I’m sure that the government can multitask; Obama is doing a great job multitasking.)  This kind of statement from Pelosi seems more like “I don’t want to give the Right something to rally around.”  That’s weak, and it’s not true.  Grow a backbone.  How about doing the right thing for once, rather than what’s politically expedient?  (The Republicans are on their heels.  Major figures in the party — Steve Schmidt, for one — are coming out in favor of same-sex marriage.  Why not now?  Why are Democrats so afraid?  Why are Democrats backing off promises to repeal DADT?  DOMA?)

And if not now, as the nation undergoes a sea change in same-sex marriage, when?  Do those married same-sex couples in Massachusetts, Iowa, and all the other states that allow same-sex marriage deserve fewer rights than opposite-sex couples?  How does that make any sense at all?  How is that right or just?  Answer: It makes no sense at all and it is neither fair nor just.  Pelosi needs to grow a spine like the legislatures did in Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont.