STAFF EDIT: No excuse

In many states Tuesday evening, residents were left either satisfied or disenchanted by results of local referenda. But nationwide, gay rights supporters waited on tenterhooks, looking north to Maine voters in the hopes that its voters would make Maine the first state to allow the right to gay marriage via referendum were left sorely disappointed. Fifty-two percent of voters struck down the legislation that made it legal for homosexuals to marry in Maine, which was passed last year, adding the northernmost and typically liberal state to a list of the 30 other states in the nation to vote down equal marriage rights legislation at the polls. As the results broke and the entire country watched yet another state give in to anachronistic conservatism, a disturbing image likely came to the minds of all gay rights supports, imagining a post-election party full of people celebrating their success in limiting another person’s right to marry whomever they love.

Many blame Maine’s stereotype as a ‘downeast hick state’ for the results of the Tuesday’s vote. But while Portland, Maine’s largest city, voted to uphold marriage equality, many of its other larger cities sided with the smaller towns to overturn the legislation and ban gay marriage. And when a very similar election took place in California last spring, it came out that a state considered to have markedly liberal views and a prominent gay population still couldn’t defeat an anti-marriage equality referendum. So it’s unreasonable to assert that America’s inability to vote in support of this kind of civil legislation is a regional matter. There are closed-minded voters everywhere, in every party, state, faith and demographic. The legislative limiting of civil rights that seem so obviously constitutional is not a Maine problem or a California problem, but rather it is a national problem. It’s a sociopolitical wonder that a nation so advanced in technology, education and business can still harbor the stilted sentiments of homophobia.

There is no excuse for a group of people to prevent another group of people from choosing who they want to marry. There is no biological dilemma, there is no political conflict, there is no ethical question ‘- it is, plainly and simply, a complete breach of human right. Coupled with the sweeping success of conservative republicans across the board at polling places nationwide, Maine’s despicable decision to ban the right of homosexuals to marry proves that America is not nearly as free and modern a nation as it claims to be. As for the people who believe America is better than subordinating minority groups, it’s time to rally. Because along with its history of discrimination, this country also has been known to offer some relatively fiery responses from the counterculture when wrongs need righting. It’s all a matter of which side shouts louder.