Lewiston-Auburn voters, along with many others in Maine, were thinking like Gerry Merritt of Auburn when for the first time they said yes to a gay rights law, experts said.
After voting no on Question 1 last week, which if passed would have repealed an equal rights law for gays, Merritt explained his decision. “Times have changed. Go with the times.”
That’s one reason why Maine voted for gay rights Nov. 8 after rejecting it twice before, election watchers conclude.
Compared to 2000 and 1998 when Lewiston-Auburn and Maine rejected a gay anti-discrimination law, people have become more accepting of gays.
Adding to that, the ‘No on 1′ campaign did a better job telling voters why the law was needed, and a great job getting out the vote. “A room at Bowdoin College was like a war room” for No on 1 with students getting bus rides to polls, said Bowdoin College government professor and pollster Christian Potholm.
Meanwhile, the ‘Yes on 1′ campaign was negative. Some voters concluded Michael Heath’s statements that the institution of marriage would be harmed if the law stayed weren’t credible, Potholm said.
Money also played a role.
The No on 1 had far more than the conservative religious ‘Yes on 1′ campaigns. But that was also the case, experts said, when the Christian Civic League and Maine Grassroots Coalition won in 2000.
Compared to then, “There’s greater acceptance or tolerance of gays and lesbians in terms of popular culture, in TV, movies, films,” said Marv Druker, a leadership studies professor at the Lewiston-Auburn College. Shows like “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “Will & Grace” feature people who are openly gay.
Last year state Rep. William Walcott, D-Lewiston, announced he was gay during House debate, pointed out Karl Trautman, chairperson of the social sciences department at Central Maine Community College in Auburn.
“People are coming into contact with people who openly identify themselves as gay and lesbians,” Druker said. When people get to know people in a group, fear and mystery that existed before lessens, he said. What that meant for Question 1 was a larger base of voters open to the anti-discrimination law.
That was noticeable in Lewiston-Auburn, Trautman said. In 2000, both cities rejected gay rights. This time Auburn voted to keep the law, 54 to 46 percent; Lewiston, 53.4 to 46.5 percent.
In addition to social change, population shifts bring different views, said Amy Fried, political science professor at the University of Maine.
All the data show big opinion differences by age, Fried said. “The older you are, the less supportive you’re likely to be about nondiscrimination or marriage rights. The population changes in five years.” Older people who rejected gay rights in 2000 may now be in a nursing home or have died, she said. Kids who were 13 years old in 2000 are now 18 and of voting age.
Before Tuesday’s election many watching the race – Fried, Potholm and Maine Catholic diocese spokesman Marc Mutty – didn’t know which side would win.
When Mutty and Potholm heard Lewiston voted for gay rights around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, they said, separately, they ” knew it was all over.” Maine would, for the first time, support gay rights because Lewiston-Auburn and the Franco population are the swing votes for the state, they observed.
One reason why some L-A voters didn’t listen to Heath or Lewiston’s Paul Madore of Maine Grassroots Coalition this time was their negative messages, Mutty said. Locally, Madore angered some when he strongly criticized a Lewiston Catholic priest.
The Rev. Michael Seavey spoke at a Lewiston-Auburn College forum in September, saying discrimination against gays wasn’t how Jesus behaved. A few days later, Madore held a news conference outside Seavey’s St. Patrick’s Church at which he condemned the priest and the church.
“People were outraged about that,” said Lewiston Catholic Louise Poliquin.
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