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Well, well, check this out: <BR> <BR><b><font color="0000ff">Dejection fills ballroom after gay marriage vote</font></b> <BR> <BR>By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer John Curran, <BR>Associated Press Writer – Wed Nov 4, 2:21 pm ET <BR> <BR>PORTLAND, Maine – Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible. <BR> <BR>Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box. <BR> <BR>"I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom early Wednesday with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is, why people are so afraid of this change. <BR> <BR>"It hurts. It hurts personally," she said. "It's a personal rejection of us and our relationship, and I don't understand what the fear is." <BR> <BR>With 98 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci. <BR> <BR>"The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation," said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal. <BR> <BR>For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message. <BR> <BR>Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote. <BR> <BR>Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry. <BR> <BR>"They love and they have the right to love. And we can't tell somebody how to love," said Holman, 26. <BR> <BR>While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue. <BR> <BR>The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: "We all do!" <BR> <BR>"We're not short-timers. We're here for the long haul and whether it's just all night and into the morning, or it's next week or next month or next year. We will be here. We'll be here fighting. We'll be working. We will regroup." <BR> <BR>That's not what gay marriage opponent Chuck Schott wanted to hear. At age 71, and after other gay rights efforts in 1998, 2000 and 2005, Schott said he's getting tired of taking his fight to the polls. <BR> <BR>"Before the final tally last night was even in, the No on 1 warned us that we'll have to fight the battle all over again — soon. I wish they'd take their battle to some other state, and give us a rest," he said Wednesday. <BR> <BR>Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Malone, who urged his followers to reject same-sex marriage, said he was grateful to people, like Schott, who voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman "as it has been understood for millennia by civilizations and religions around the world." <BR> <BR><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gay_marriage_maine" target=_top>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gay_marriage_maine</a>
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If Civil Rights had depended on the people's vote, there would still be segregation in parts of the U.S., the South. <BR> <BR>Gay marriage has been legalized by several states by judicial rule, which is why the U.S. has a Republic, rather than simple Democracy.
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Guess Maine like California, if they want this, will just have to try again. For now Civil Unions will have to do, or just living together, eh. In this economy people don't want to pay for homosexuals to have marriage benefits, it looks like.
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Elaine, the blacks don't appreciate the comparison to their struggle, haven't you been paying attention on Spectrum??? <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/clipart/uhoh.gif" border=0>
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Bob, <BR>Whether you are black or not, do you have any right to represent them all? <BR>Some may not appreciate the comparison, some do. Please pay attention to what bishop Desmond Tutu has to say about the issue - would you like some links?
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Bob, I would add to Jag: "unless you are homosexual, how do you think you can represent them anymore than the blacks?
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It looks like the everything but marriage law has passed in Washington State. Yes votes total 593,956 and No votes total 556,090. There are 600,000 votes uncounted, but half of those are from King County which so far has voted 2-1 in favor of it. <BR> <BR>My wife and I and our three kids all voted for it. The law expands existing domestic partnerships to give domestic partners every right that married couples have, except the name marriage. Those rights include community property rights and the rights to inherit if the person's deceased domestic partner had no Will. Brace yourselves, folks. It is inevitable. I, for one, am glad.
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One day, soon, the courts will agree that restricting any group from rights enjoyed by others, violates the Constitution establishing equal rights for all. <BR> <BR>If all initiatives were given the status of law, how many for taxation would ever pass? There are some concepts that should never be "up for grabs" as few citizens would vote to pass new taxes, yet they all want the benefits taxation brings.
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there will be heavy financial consequences for society.... <BR> <BR>I forecast a burgeoning business for homosexual marriage for immigration status.. is that marriage proposal from that rich guy overseas really based on tru love? <BR> <BR>and can you imagine the insurance premium increases for the general public... especially for small businesses..... that gay worker you just hired and for whom you pay his insurance? he's gonna be tempted to Marry one of his sick and unemployed stay-at-home-watching-Oprah friends to give him medical coverage which you as a small business will have to pay for. <BR> <BR>and when the sick "spouse" needs care, will you have to give your gay worker time off with pay? <BR> <BR>and when they want separate but equal bathrooms, will you have to remodel your facilities? <BR> <BR>and will the Catholic adoption agencies have to close because they refuse to place adoptions in gay homes? preferring to provide the best family set ups for their kids? that is...a man-wife home? <BR> <BR>and will inmates in Mass for whom my taxes already support gender reassignment, will they be able to choose their own cellmates and marry each other...legally...? where does it all end? <BR> <BR>there are ways to provide for all that in the law without extending "marriage" to same sex partners. <BR> <BR>but will it end there? what about Hef and his three gal pals...should he be able to marry all three of them? and should they let Jeffries out of jail for recommending multiple marriages? <BR>after all, wasn't it the God ordained way back in the Olde Daze of Olde Abe and intermarriage between kinfolk? <BR> <BR>can I marry and deduct the three mini schnauzers I sleep with? daily consummated by face slobbering... <BR> <BR>and that guy in Carolina and his horse who have already consummated the relationship in the abnormal way.... will they be able to marry? <BR> <BR>note: when caught with his pants down, that guy should have just claimed... <BR> <BR>A) sorry...this IS the south, and I thought it was my cousin <BR> <BR>or <BR> <BR>B) "sorry...I just felt like a horses a.. <BR> <BR>but we do want to get married.. should we have moved to some other state first?" <BR> <BR>question: why Did God invent sex between two different genders in the first place if He didn't want people and animals to do it that way? <BR> <BR>and remember, according to the Old Story, the penalty for wasting the "seed" of ones stones is stoning to death. <BR> <BR>Its better to attack your neighboring village, kill everybody, men, women who have had sex, little boys, but save and use the cute virgins to enlarge your tribe. <BR> <BR>that's all part of Gods plan, right?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
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And this never happens with heterosexuals?? <BR> <BR>My son, a single, straight bachelor, has been offered several times for $$ to legally marry a girl on temporary visa to give her U.S. citizenship. He, of course, refused. But to say that never occurs is ludicrous, as you should know. <BR> <BR>If heterosexual marriages were all perfect then one could consider homosexual marriages might also be; but since there is already a 50% divorce rate for marriages, please explain how same-sex marriages are detrimental for heterosexual marriages? <BR> <BR>Does anyone get to approve insurance or other benefits afforded heterosexual marriages? Are they not by far the majority of all marriages? If a co-worker marries, is he not allowed to claim a dependent? Would the insurance charges be more, or less, for same-sex? <BR> <BR>If people wish to marry someone of the same sex or opposite sex, or if they wish to marry someone of a different race (aren't we all a mixture?) why should it matter if we still are given free choice in our own personal lives? Why should we care how others live in the privacy of their own homes? Must we give approval?
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