Advocates of same-sex marriage knew – positively knew – that Maine residents would overwhelmingly vote No on Question 1, giving voter assent to the state legislature and governor’s approval of a same-sex marriage law.
They gathered throughout the state for victory parties that turned into wakes as the evening progressed, as voters narrowly but decisively approved Question 1 instead. What flipped the script?
What Maine voters did last week is distinct from the marriage votes that have taken place in most other states that had decided the question. They rejected a state law that would have permitted same-sex marriage. So the state court system could still conceivably impose it there, which has happened in four states in the past decade. In most other states that have voted on this issue, the question was whether to place the definition of marriage into the state constitution.
It would be easy to dismiss the results in Maine as somehow less important than the approval of Proposition 8 in California last year. It would also be wrong. If Question 1 had been defeated, it would have emboldened same-sex marriage activists nationwide, because it would have bolstered the narrative that they have invented: that “the people” now overwhelmingly support “marriage equality” and that definition-of-marriage laws therefore should ultimately be overturned. In particular, legislative efforts in New York and New Jersey to authorize same-sex marriage have become more suspect overnight.
It’s undeniably true that the No on 1 forces had all the advantages entering last Tuesday’s vote: an organization largely imported from California, with consultants who believed they could counter the mistakes they made in the nation’s largest state a year ago; a much larger budget than real marriage advocates had; the “it’s inevitable” narrative mentioned above; the support of state and national politicians, including President Obama; and the liberal population of Maine, which on Nov. 3 also approved a proposal to permit the distribution of marijuana for medical purposes. No on 1 supporters must be spending considerable time and energy wondering what happened.
They can stop wondering. Real marriage won in Maine Nov. 3, as it has in 30 other states, because people know what marriage is: the union of one man and one woman. Rationalizations about the supposed unfair tactics of marriage advocates can’t erase the fact that voters in the privacy of the voting booth understand that this issue isn’t about acceptance or love, but truth.
The only place a definition of marriage issue has ever been defeated at the polls was in Arizona, and the population of that state corrected its mistake last year. Voters in Maine clearly rejected the bogus argument of “equality” and stuck with what they know to be true: that anyone in the state can be married if they choose to agree with what marriage is – the union of one man and one woman.
What happens next? We don’t expect same-sex marriage advocates to admit defeat, because they don’t seem capable of that kind of reflection. It’s likely, though, that their tactics will change out of a growing realization that they can’t win at the ballot box. Instead, courts and state legislatures will become even more of a preferred venue to pursue this radical social change. We’re seeing this already in California, where a federal court case seeking to overturn that state’s 2008 affirmation of real marriage will be heard next year, and in Iowa, where a court has imposed same-sex marriage and legislative leaders refuse to vote on whether to let the voters decide the issue.
Values voters can’t give up this fight, because activists on the other side of the issue show no signs of abandoning their quest to change the definition of marriage. Last week’s victory for righteousness and justice in Maine was important to affirm that we are on the right side of this vital moral issue. But it’s not enough to be right. We’ll need to be diligent as well, because our opponents seem to grow more obstinate and demanding with each defeat they experience.
