Searching for a former clarity BY AL DIAMON

It used to be simple.

In two previous referendum campaigns, proponents argued that homosexuals needed a law protecting their civil rights because they were the victims of discrimination. Opponents claimed there was no evidence of prejudice, and even if some should be discovered, queers were still disgusting and evil. The anti-gay position proved more compelling at the ballot box, and civil rights laws were defeated in both 1998 and 2000.

This time around, there’s an additional complication. But it shouldn’t change the outcome.

Supporters of the measure are sticking with the anti-discrimination angle. But the opposition has broadened its attack. They continue to insist there’s no proof gay men and lesbians are being fired from their jobs, denied housing, or refused credit in Maine. They still proclaim homosexuality to be an abomination. But now, they’ve got this whole culture-war thing.

If you’re for gay rights, they say, you’re also supporting abortion, euthanasia, gun control, flag burning, Internet porn, Ted Kennedy, art exhibits featuring crucifixes in beakers of urine, movies filled with cuss words and exposed genitalia, books espousing Satanism, and hip-hop music that’s degrading to women, minorities, and homosexuals. (Well, maybe that last one isn’t so bad.) Above all, if you’re for gay rights, your real goal is to destroy the underpinnings of Western civilization by legalizing same-sex marriage.

For political exaggeration to be effective, there has to be enough truth among the ranting to make the argument resonate with ordinary people worried their kids will be corrupted by cross-dressing freakazoids masquerading as middle-school algebra teachers, while secretly distributing condoms and South Park DVDs.

It appears there is.

With about a month to go until the election, all the momentum seems to be on the side of Paul Madore of the Maine Grassroots Coalition and Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League of Maine, the leaders of the effort to overturn the law. They may not have much money, but Madore and Heath have built the kind of political organization that’s quick to mobilize, slow to question its leaders’ statements, and certain to turn out at the polls on November 8. Using that base, the two anti-gay crusaders have been reaching out to that large portion of the electorate for whom homosexuality is not a burning issue.

With that crowd, they’ve got control of the debate.

Discrimination? It’s not on the agenda. To date, the items being debated have been legalizing unholy matrimony and allowing child sex abusers to run rampant through day-care centers and Boy Scout troops. That neither same-sex marriage nor molesting children has the slightest thing to do with the gay-rights bill is irrelevant. So long as the public perceives a connection, the civil-rights law loses at the polls.

So how are pro-gay-rights forces counteracting this insidious attack?

Sushi. Avant-garde theater. And a lot of whining about how the other side is misrepresenting their case. The law’s supporters couldn’t be doing a better job of helping the homophobes if they were getting paid to do so.

While Heath churns out email newsletters claiming gay-rights laws are part of a secret agenda being pushed by a shadowy "cultural elite," intent on turning Maine into a hedonistic enclave filled with sexual deviants, evolutionists, and Air America listeners, the pro-gay-rights group, Maine Won’t Discriminate (MWD), seems to be doing everything in its power to reinforce that image.

In Camden, best-selling author Tess Gerritsen served sushi and champagne to guests at a well-publicized MWD fundraiser on September 20.

In Portland, gay-rights supporters can contribute $25 apiece on October 7 to see Mad Horse Theatre perform the David Mamet play Boston Marriage.

And across the state, the law’s proponents get predictably defensive whenever the opposition raises the issue of connubial bliss for the chromosomally congruent.

"This [law] is not about marriage," said Ted O’Meara, chief spokesperson for MWD at a September 21 debate in Orono. "This is about real people."

Huh?

"It’s not about marriage," MWD leader Pat Peard was quoted as saying in the Maine Sunday Telegram in July. "It has nothing to do with marriage."

"I think everybody should have equal rights," Portland Democratic Party chair Sive Neilan told reporters at an Augusta rally in April. "[The legislation] has nothing to do with . . . marriage."

Every time they say that, it means more votes for Heath and Madore. Because a significant portion of the public believes the issue of same-sex matrimony is part of the gay-rights debate. By denying that, MWD comes off as divorced (same-sex divorce?) from reality.

Maybe all that money being raised from Mamet and mushy fish will finance the kind of TV ads that can counteract MWD’s mushy mouths.

But it won’t be simple. And it already may be too late.

Have gay rights’ chances been cooked by raw squid? Email me at ishmaelia@gwi.net