Nutgraph: Is the peace in Maine after the November election only the quiet before the storm?

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It seems that last November’s election in Maine has silenced those arguing both for and against marriage equality, as a decisive majority in this state voted yes on Question 1 affirming the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.

After decades of often fierce debate, the resulting quietude is welcomed by many. No more campaign phone calls, no more road signs, no more passionate commercials. It’s nice.

Maine has joined eight other states and the District of Columbia, mirroring Gallup polls indicating that 53 percent of Americans believe marriages between same-sex couples should be legally recognized (45 percent do not).

Last year’s national, nine-percentage-point increase in support for same-sex marriage is the largest year-to-year shift yet measured.

Maine’s quiet outcome however, is likely to be short-lived.

In June, the United States Supreme Court will announce its decision in two separate same-sex marriage cases which may proffer narrow implications affecting only the litigants, or may have sweeping ramifications across the entire nation, extending marriage equality to millions and upending what some feel is the sanctity of marriage. Whatever the decision, several pundits predict a rancorous battle that will last our lifetime, comparing the contention of 1954’s Brown vs Board of Education or Roe vs. Wade. For certain, legislators on both sides of the aisle won’t be throwing rose petals and humming Pachelbel.

Meanwhile, many questions remain unanswered in the dichotomy that stands, or doesn’t stand, as the laws of our land affecting legally married, same-sex couples. And the lack of answers may create a din of dissension well before, as well as after, next June’s judicial pronouncement.

For personal example, my husband, Jim, and I were legally married when out-of-state couples were given that right in Massachusetts. We did it on the same date, Aug. 25, as our original ceremony took place on our farm in Greene, seven years earlier. (That date was important: I have enough trouble remembering one anniversary, no less two.) With last November’s historic vote, Maine legally recognized our marriage. Hurrah.

Now, many questions remain as we, along with thousands of other same-sex couples, navigate these unchartered marital waters … questions both hypothetical, as well as real.

Hypothetically: say I had a brother named Mike living in Texas, which does not recognize gay marriage. Would Mike be my husband Jim’s brother-in-law? Or only when he visited us here in Maine? Sure, Mike, y’all can barbecue that lobster.

Do all of our relationships change as we drive from state to state? Welcome to the New York State Thruway. Gay Marriages Invalid At Exit 61.

Do Jim and I haul out our now voided, “Maine Domestic Partnership” papers in states that recognize that relationship, but not our marriage? Are we legal strangers in states that only recognize “civil unions” because we do not have that status? Ah heck, single again!

I recognize that we are so-out-of-luck in the other 41 states, particularly in those states where our relationship remains criminal in their law books. A cross-country trip allows a stop only in Iowa.

All this is, perhaps, only technicalities, unless one hypothesizes my dying in Texas while visiting my family. Could my relatives take legal possession of my body, as well as our RV, claiming next of kin?

Undoubtedly there are many more situations that could keep hundreds of tort attorneys wealthy and quite busy, but the questions will remain unanswered until next June, and very possibly well beyond. Whether the Supreme Court decision is sweeping or singular, get ready. The deafening debate heard in Maine in past years is likely to become a national cacophony.

Jim and I, meanwhile, will plan any travel very carefully. Thankfully, I do not have an RV or a brother Mike, and none of my relatives lives in Texas.

Retired from careers in theatre and education, Lew Alessio has been a civil rights activist all of his life. He lives in Greene with his husband, Jim Shaffer.