ONE STEP BACK

Foul language from the right

By Tony Giampetruzzi

As promised, they’re at it again. They are the state’s right-wing zealots, and they are obsessed with making life for gays in Maine the proverbial hell that they believe gays and lesbians already deserve. This time they’re even taking on committed hetero couples that choose not to marry.

On the tail of legislation that would give small businesses merely the option to offer domestic partnership benefits to their employees, and only days before Portland affirmed a measure to change the definition of family to include life partners, the Christian Civic League submitted language for a referendum that would wipe out those and any gains that gays and lesbians have made in recent years.

According to David Garrity, president of the Maine Lesbian and gay Political Alliance, the measure, if passed, would repeal “everything.”

From state employee benefits, to the Portland ordinance, to benefits for USM and Portland city employees, to the new bill that will guarantee that all employers can buy domestic-partner insurance — if they want to.

The language of the referendum, introduced by CCL attorney Steve Whiting, is pretty nasty. To be sure, passage of this measure would turn Maine into a civil rights wasteland while gutting state and city laws aimed at protecting both traditional and non-traditional families.

In addition to the language that says, “no other consensual relations between individuals will be given the same status as marriage,” the referendum language is retroactive, continuing to say “all state and local laws, statutes, rules, regulations, ordinances, policies, executive and administrative orders giving legal recognition to ‘civil unions,’ ‘domestic partnerships,’ or any other consensual relationship between individuals akin to marriage are declared null and void and are repealed.”

Poof. Just like that. The measure would also strip all “rights and benefits” from domestic partners as bestowed by said laws, statutes, regulations etc., etc., and insure that “no state revenues shall be used to pay for benefits” for domestic partners.

And, while the language of the proposed referendum is still in draft form, those headstrong folks aren’t likely to step back after picking a fight. Let the fundraising begin.