The gay state of the state

If you’re happy and you know it, push for more

By Tony Giampetruzzi

Forty three states don’t provide any type of domestic partner benefits to their state workers. Maine isn’t one of them.

Twenty four states have yet to eke out a Hate Crimes law to respond to and/or record information about hate crimes related to sexual orientation. Maine isn’t one of them.

In 14 states, sex between two men is a criminal act that can result in the stiffest penalties, including extensive jail time. Maine isn’t one of them.

Thirteen states now have a law that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination in various areas ranging from employment to housing. As just about everyone now knows, Maine isn’t one of them, either.

But, as Maine’s legislative season winds down, and, with the onslaught of Pride week spurring reflection among the gay community in Maine, most agree that 2001 hasn’t proven to be as bad as everyone thought. In fact, it would be largely unfair to categorize Maine as even a mixed bag when it comes to pro-gay laws and protections, despite our inability to pass an equal rights law at the ballot box last November. Sure, we don’t have “the big one,” but some really plum legislation aimed at protecting non-traditional families made its way through Augusta this year with the help of some very pro-gay legislators and the tireless lobbying of the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance. At the same time, some holy rolling legislation aimed at gutting proven sex education, usurping proposed domestic partnership legislation, and diluting the state’s school’s civil rights teams went down in flames.

“We may not have what we have always thought is the brass key to the kingdom, but there are other ways of opening the door,” reminds Pat Peard, the Portland attorney who headed Maine Won’t Discriminate. “Each step that we take to recognizing families and our need for protection is a positive step in the right direction.” As gains are made in the statehouse, the institution of a domestic partner registry in Portland is just one of the latest things that has made Maine’s largest city one of the most gay-friendly municipalities in the country. And have you been paying attention to what’s going on in Ogunquit? Can you say Provincetown-North?

Believe me, the defeat of the equal rights bill last November was a crushing defeat, but, despite it all, Maine still deserves a star on the country’s gay map.

It’s good to see that the failure of 6 hasn’t stopped us and that we will continue with this fight,” promises David Garrity, president of the MLGPA, co-chair of the failed YES on 6 for Equal Rights campaign, and, for all intents and purposes, ace lobbyist. “If they block us on one path, then we’ll take another. Let’s face it — we have been trying to get a civil rights law to stick for 25 years. Obviously, we’ve learned that it just isn’t going to happen right now. But keep in mind — we may have lost at the polls last year, but they certainly didn’t win.”

That pretty much sums where Maine is on the long road to full equality for gays and lesbians. While the Holy Trinity of Paul Volle (Christian Coalition), Michael Heath (Christian Civic League), and Paul Madore (Grassroots Coalition) continue to plant ubiquitous roadblocks on the path to equal rights, Garrity and company are blasting them out of the way or taking a sharp turn to the left to create their own road.

For example, in March Governor Angus King approved a committee decision to offer domestic partnership benefits to state workers, thereby making Maine one of only seven states that recognizes the unmarried partners of municipal employees. In April, the legislature soundly rejected a bill that would have changed the way Maine schools teach sex education: forcing abstinence-only instruction and the philosophy that homosexuality is not an accepted lifestyle.

Also in April, the legislature opted to forego limited domestic partnership benefits legislation in favor of taking up State Representative Ben Dudley’s bill that now requires insurance companies to offer domestic partnership group packages to businesses regardless of their size. With their nod of approval last month, the legislature effectively gave Maine businesses the option of providing health care to their employees’ unmarried partners, a move that pleased business, labor, union, and gay leaders; and is rare if not unheard of in other states.

Without any opposition at all, a unanimous committee vote all but made law a bill that will lift the “immediate family only” restriction from hospital visitation policies. Everyone has heard one of the tearful stories of the lesbian who was prohibited from being in the hospital room with her partner as she lay dying — fortunately, that can’t happen again in Maine. Incidentally, the bill also makes it possible for patients to prohibit family members from visiting them as well.

“The passage of both of these bills sends an important message to our community that just because we didn’t win at the ballot box doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to progress on the road to equal rights,” said Garrity. “Both of the measures that we sought this session make it clear that the rights that we seek are universal. Both bills offer new benefits to straight people as well as the gay community.”

The bills do more, though. They send a message that Maine won’t be undone. For years, Maine has worn a dunce cap for being the only state in New England without an omnibus equal rights law, a black eye that has often overshadowed the fact that Maine is one of only a handful of states that has a wide array of protections for its minority citizens.

“It’s hard to be the only state in New England (without this law), and it’s especially hard because this fight started so long ago,” said Peard. “But, during that time, we’ve grown up and matured and realized that there are other goals and other things that can be done.”

And plenty has been done. In 1999, after Maine’s umpteenth failed attempt to maintain an equal rights law (and that wasn’t even the most recent attempt) Maine joined Kentucky and New York in passing the most citywide, sexual-orientation inclusive civil rights ordinances in one year. Now, at least nine Maine towns, including the tiny fishing villages of Brooksville and Sorrento (Check your map!), have express protections for gays and lesbians. The attorney general’s office regularly arbitrates cases where someone is a victim of hate because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. Organizations throughout the state continue with outreach, prevention, and services for those at risk for or living with HIV/AIDS. And, well-funded civil rights teams in Maine’s schools espouse diversity and safe places for youth. According to Tami Eldridge, executive director of Outright Portland, they are also the model for similar programs in other states.

úThe civil rights teams are awesome in that they provide g/l/b/t/q people and their allies with an opportunity to educate and to help stamp out homophobia. They are also very unique in that they are facilitated by the Attorney General’s office,” said Eldridge. “Some states look to the Safe Schools program in Massachusetts as their model , but a lot of others are looking to Maine because our program is so unique and successful.” Eldridge points to Vermont as one state that has modeled their youth-based program on Maine’s civil rights team program.

With all the good that has been accomplished, though, Mainers have come to expect that opposition always lurks right around the corner. Pissed-off at all the domestic partner advances made this year by MLGPA and state lawmakers, right-wing minions announced their latest defense last month, an impending referendum that will repeal any and all local and state domestic partnership allowances if passed. Activists, although agitated, have been undeterred from their work, however, and a number of barometers suggest that the chances of a win by Volle, Heath, and company in 2002 are bleak.

“I don’t think it could succeed. It’s an ill-conceived referendum question, and very much like the one that failed in 1995,” said Peard, referring to the referendum proposed by Carolyn Cosby’s Concerned Maine Families that was defeated by the Peard-led No on 1 campaign. Now, Peard has been meeting with Garrity and other veteran activists to discuss again what steps will be taken to combat the anti-gay armies. “They’ve attempted to lump several different issues into one bill. It’s confusing, and I don’t think it will get anywhere.”

One thing is for sure . . . the referendum won’t even make it off the starting block among the folks in Portland.

It often infuriates rural Mainers, especially gays and lesbians in the hinterlands, but there is no denying that the nexus of gay life in Maine, and perhaps the region, is Portland, the 456th most populous city in the country. When Peter O’Donnell, one of Portland’s two openly-gay city councilors, testified in favor of a domestic partner registry at a hearing last month, he mentioned that, if instituted, the registry would make Portland the 72nd municipal body, among tens of thousands in the U.S., to offer such a provision. Given the huge number of cities and towns in the U.S., that makes Portland very special, said Peard.

“This is not common in the grand scheme of things,” said Peard. “Portland has always been a unique place and it’s not afraid to stand up and recognize the importance of diversity and family. What Portland has done is not common but it’s also not surprising. ” Perhaps the move, which changes the definition of family in all city statutes and sets up a registry that will offer other protections to unmarried couples, is not a surprise, but it is cutting-edge.

Portland also became the first city in Maine and one of the first in the country to pass an equal rights ordinance in 1992. It followed that up by jumping on the then-ill-attended bandwagon of cities offering domestic partner benefits to its employees in 1998.

And that’s not all. When the AIDS crisis hit the country in the early 1980s as what was then perceived as a “gay disease,” pioneers in Maine, including Frannie Peabody and the late gay uber-author John Preston, helped to create one of the first AIDS service organizations in the country, The AIDS Project.

“Portland has always been trying to do the same things as cities like San Francisco,” said George Friou, director of the AIDS Project. “When it comes to comparing it to other cities, Portland measures up very well. While a lot of other cities still won’t even consider a needle exchange program, Portland’s program has been working well for more than three years now.”

Friou isn’t the only person to use Portland and San Francisco in the same sentence. For years, people have taken notice of the fact that there seems to be a larger-than-usual gay population in Portland, often setting it up as San Francisco’s East Coast counterpart.

According to Garrity, lots of gay people migrate to Portland because it is the only urban area in the state. That is different from, say, Massachusetts or Florida, where more than one urban area is able to sustain a visible gay community. So, given that Portland has more pro-gay provisions than most cities; a host of openly-gay lawmakers; a police chief that shows at every gay-related event there is; and a huge, visible gay community, can our small town fairly be compared to a city like San Francisco?

“That’s ridiculous,” said Garrity who moved to Maine from New York City in the late 1980s. “It’s not organized in the same way and, in many ways, the gay community in Portland is much more healthy on a social level. The size of our city requires us all to live much more closely and more diversely than a true city does, and that can be a good thing.

“In a true city, which Portland is not, there is more anonymity and your community is smaller. But, we’ve really integrated here. In San Francisco, you can live an exclusively gay life. From your dry cleaner to your accountant, you may never see a straight person.”

Barb Wood, Portland’s first openly gay city councilor and the woman who introduced Portland’s equal rights ordinance in 1992, agrees that Portland is no San Francisco, but that the nature of its geography makes it seem bigger and more urban than it really is, a fact that gives credence to the overwhelming presence of gay men and women.

“Portland really has much more of a big-city feel than other cities of comparable size, ” says Wood. “And part of that feel is because of how progressive the laws in Portland are. Just as Portland appeared to be on the cutting edge when we passed the equal rights ordinance in 1992, we again appear to be ahead of the game with the registry now. In another nine years, though, it won’t seem that out of the ordinary.”

So maybe the comparison to San Francisco is unfair. To be sure, no member of Portland’s police force will be sexually reassigned on the city’s dime any time soon (sexual reassignment is the new term for sex change, and, yes, the procedure is covered by DP insurance in the City by the Bay), but the similarities linger nonetheless . For instance, where there are gay people there must be dancing, right?

Portland, unlike other major U.S. cities with large gay populations, is not known for its gay nightlife offerings, but if you ask anyone who lives here, they’ll inevitably tell you that the scene is surprisingly vibrant and certainly not what you’d expect from a city of less than 75,000.

“If you only skim the surface of Portland, there’s only one gay dance club and a couple neighborhood bars,” says Shawn LaGrega, a 25-year-old professional and a staple of the gay community in Portland. “But if you open your eyes, you see that gays and lesbians are partying in large numbers in bars throughout the city. And, not only are the bars gay-friendly, so are the straight people who go to them.”

LaGrega names Una, the Wharf Street Wine Bar, Top of the East, Mazza, and even Brian Boru as well-known hang-outs for the gay and lesbian jet set. “There’s also a huge ‘dinner party’ crowd that you’ll never see out at the bars because they’ve gotten tired of the bar scene. Overall, Portland is a very accepting city, and it’s very, very gay, and people are constantly looking for variety. I mean, the Underground is the only major gay club here and it’s not always fun to just go there once a week.”

Eldridge agrees there is a lack of social outlets for the gay population , especially the younger set. “There really is no place for young people to go and to congregate, and that is something that most urban areas struggle with. In that respect, Portland is no different than anywhere else. That said, we have always felt safe and respected in Portland.”

LaGrega adds that he doesn’t know why more exclusively gay venues don’t exist in the city for adults or youth. “And I’m really puzzled as to why more people don’t make Portland a vacation destination.”

One reason for that may be that gay and lesbian travelers are only getting as far north as Ogunquit, that small town just south of Portland that is quickly developing a reputation as one of the premier gay resort meccas in the country.

Ogunquit, like Provincetown, Fire Island, and Greenwich Village, has always been known as an “artist’s colony” (those in-the-know realize that term is code for “gay colony”), but it wasn’t until the last few years that the small town by the sea truly burst onto the national gay scene. Within the last 12 months, a huge dance club (Maine Street), two new lounges (Vine and No. Five-O) and new gay-owned and operated guesthouses (Abalonia and the Carriage Trade Inn) have more than doubled entertainment options for gay tourists and given those in the region something to do on the weekends year round.

“People are wanting to come for the beach and the nightlife, which was grown by The Club and The Front Porch over the past 20 years. All these places continue to make Ogunquit bigger and bigger and the energy and momentum here are great right now,” says Jim Lucibello, innkeeper at Abalonia. “But the main thing that keeps people coming back is the tight-knit community. Tourists see how well we all get along and help each other out, and it gives them a really good feeling.”

With rumors that even more clubs and restaurants aimed exclusively at a gay clientele are on their way, Ogunquit only adds to Maine’s gay and lesbian mystique while drawing money and potential future resident into the state.

Tucked away, and misrepresented as a backwoods, chamois shirt kind of place, Maine has a brand of style and allure that attracts and maintains a large gay population. However, those very same people agree that state lawmakers have a long way to go to gain full equality for them. They also believe that Portland may not be a New York or San Francisco where the emblematic pink triangle has been replaced by a Kenneth Cole leather driving jacket as the gay MO. But, chances are, if you ask most Mainers, they’ll take the pink triangle any day.

Tony Giampetruzzi can be reached at groovejet4@aol.com