By Bonnie Washuk

and Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writers

Maine is the only state in New England without a gay rights law.

Three times the Legislature has enacted gay rights protections. Twice the electorate has tossed them out. Next month voters will weigh a third repeal.

The ideology and age of Maine’s residents, as well as an organized political base by the law’s opponents, have been factors. But pundits say it is Maine citizens’ ability to easily undo what the Legislature has done that has kept the state from passing, and keeping, an anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation.

Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island don’t have laws that allow voters to initiate or override unpopular laws passed by state legislators. Massachusetts does, but the process is more restrictive than Maine’s.

Lawmakers here have debated anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation 13 times since 1984, according to Steve Wessler at the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence.

The most recent law prohibiting discrimination in employment, credit and education passed in March.

In June, Michael Heath, Paul Madore and other religious conservative opponents gathered more than 50,000 signatures to get a citizen veto on the ballot. That move put the law on hold.

“Obviously, if you didn’t have the power of the initiative, it would be a law now,” said James Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Within New England, Maine is considered more conservative than Rhode Island and Massachusetts, more liberal than New Hampshire. The Granite State, the most recent in the pack to pass a gay rights measure, doesn’t allow any citizen-initiated questions on its ballot, according to state election officials.

“Michael Heath and (others) are doing this because they can,” said Mary Bonauto, a lawyer with GLAD, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

Gathering signatures to overturn a law is laborious and time-consuming, “but it’s doable in Maine,” said Marc Mutty of the Catholic diocese of Maine. Legislators are more progressive than citizens, he added.

While access to a citizen initiative is the primary reason, individuals running or analyzing the campaigns say other factors have influenced Maine’s unique standing in New England, including:

• how well or poorly past campaigns were run

• voter turnout

• Mainers don’t believe gay discrimination is a problem

• many Mainers – especially older ones – reject the homosexual lifestyle

“Tolerance of different lifestyles increases as age decreases,” said Mark Brewer, assistant political science professor at the University of Maine. In 30 years, he predicted Mainers will think of gay rights the same way civil rights for blacks is viewed now.

“Many of the people who oppose it now will be dead. They’ll be replaced by younger citizens who don’t see it as a big deal,” Brewer said.

Christian Potholm, a political pollster who teaches government at Bowdoin College, blamed poor campaigns on why Maine does not yet have a working law to protect gays from discrimination.

This campaign may be different, but in the last two, gay rights supporters allowed conservative Christian groups to win by default, Potholm said. “Supporters did not make the case for the need for a gay rights law.”

His perception: Many gays have moved beyond the worry of being fired or losing housing because they’re gay, and now want an anti-discrimination law to help do things like ensure protection for their partners if they get sick or die.

They want society to “open its arms with a parental acceptance, saying, ‘It’s OK. We love you,'” Potholm said.

Lewiston’s Madore said the law is about more than gays wanting acceptance, it’s about the “homosexualization” of Maine.

He and other religious conservatives have been successful “in getting our message out that it has nothing to do with protection against discrimination,” Madore said. “It’s about guaranteeing homosexuality.”

Gays want the law to dismantle “any social objection” to gay lifestyles, Madore said. Maine voters “understand the underpinning of these laws is to force acceptance of homosexuality, what we call the homosexualization of our culture. People don’t want that for their children.”

Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for Maine Won’t Discriminate, rejected that notion, calling it “another misleading attack and unfounded statement.”

The law is about discrimination, Connolly said.

“Discrimination happens,” he said. “It’s real. It hurts Maine people.”

Being the only state in New England without the law “is a bit of a black eye,” he said. Other states with the law, including New Hampshire, have benefited financially, luring employers and tourists, Connolly said. “I think attitudes have shifted in the past few years.”

Jennifer Brown, a law professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, co-authored with her husband the book “Staightforward: Mobilizing Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights.” She’s watching the upcoming Maine vote with interest.

“It seems here in Maine even a Legislature is not sufficient for some people,” she said. “You can’t put basic civil rights up to a majority vote.”

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