NORWAY – Michael Newsom, who has been running a local “No on 1” campaign, invited anyone in the audience to speak about their experience of discrimination at a public forum Wednesday night.
There was hesitation at first because two reporters were covering the event at the Norway library, but nonetheless people spoke personally about homosexuality and prejudice throughout the evening.
The small gathering – four in the panel and nine guests – also discussed the ideologies and emotions behind voting to support or repeal the gay-rights law that Gov. John Baldacci signed in March.
The law would extend the Maine Human Rights Act to make discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education.
A “yes” vote would repeal the law, a “no” vote would keep it in the books. Balloting is Nov. 8.
One woman sitting in the audience said perhaps part of the reason behind discrimination is that people do not see the “everydayness” of lesbians or homosexuals.
“We fill our cars with gas,” she said. “We’re in bed by 8 o’clock.”
James Cox, 28, of Portland, said when he was younger and working in Portland, he experienced discrimination and sexual harassment at his workplace. He admitted that he is embarrassed he has to ask for equal protection under the law, and that the Constitution that should protect him does not.
Everyone at the forum was against passage of the referendum question.
When contacted earlier in the day, Paul Madore, director of Maine Grassroots Coalition, said that he does not bother attending public forums organized by the opposition because of the treatment he receives there.
“They obfuscate and defer to those who are compatible with their own views. If there was more of an effort to air the views fairly,” he said, he would go.
But he appealed to people here to vote in favor of the ballot question because the claims of discrimination are false or exaggerated, and that the law will be harmful.
“It is going to legitimize a homosexual curriculum in the schools,” Madore said, which would help emphasize the normalcy of same-sex marriages.
Diane Russell, 29, of Bryant Pond, who was on the panel, said at the forum that she would like not to talk about marriage.
“That’s their topic,” she said. She said she would rather discuss the issue as a matter of equal rights.
“It’s not a gay rights issue,” she said. “It’s a human rights issue.”
Newsom, who is 37, organized the forum with Russell. He has also been running a phone bank in Paris with 25 volunteers, who have been telephoning potential voters in the evenings.
He said he has been compelled to work on this campaign because he has gained the confidence to be more politically assertive and because he knows people who have experienced discrimination. Plus, he said allowing prejudice jars with his principles.
He said he is baffled when people claim sexual discrimination is not real. “It’s fascinating that a whole group of people’s experiences can be denied,” he said.
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