Mass. LGBT Advocates Protest Yes Vote on Maine's Anti-Gay Marriage Question 1
BOSTON/Boston Common - Immediately following the yes vote on Maine's Question 1, the "Maine Same-Sex Marriage People's Veto," over 100 Mass. gay marriage advocates held a protest on Boston Common next to the Park Street T stop on Wednesday evening. The question was put on the ballot by Stand for Marriage Maine - a coalition of conservative religious and social organizations - to overturn Maine's recently-passed gay marriage law. It was opposed by the progressive coalition Protect Maine Equality. Both the pro- and anti-Question 1 forces had significant support on the national and state levels during the closely watched campaign - which was widely viewed as a barometer of the prospects for the success of the gay marriage movement around the U.S.
The event was organized on under a day's notice by Join the Impact MA and several other area LGBT and allied groups. Participants were clearly upset, but defiant - and vowed that their cause would ultimately prevail. Speaker after speaker stressed the general sentiment that it is unacceptable to hold votes on civil rights for any group of people.
Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, set the tone for rally portion of the protest, "Watching the results come in last night in Portland was a heartbreaking experience. This was a fight we actually thought we could win. It was a heartbreaking experience and it was an enraging experience. That our civil rights are up for a vote is so wrong. Yet, that's the situation we face. And what do we do in that situation? We ... fight ... back! We may have lost the vote in Maine, but we will win the war. We will win the war because that campaign was transformative. The thousands of people who got involved, who volunteered, who knocked on doors, whose energy inspired all of us, will not be lost. And it's that energy - the energy that is here tonight, the energy that we saw in Maine - that will bring us marriage in Maine, it will bring us marriage in Rhode Island, it will take down DOMA, it will bring down 'don't ask, don't tell,' and it will bring us equality."
Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons (D), an out lesbian who was married last summer, followed up, "It's really a pleasure to be here. I just want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for standing up. You know sometimes winning the battle is just by showing up and standing up for your rights. When we got marriage equality in Cambridge, when we had that fine day on May 17th, it was because a lot of people before that day stood up. They stood up and said 'I have a right to be married. I have a right to raise a family. I have a right to live in this neighborhood. I have the right to be acknowledged.
"Because we have a right to have the same lifestyle as anyone else in America. Anyone else in Massachusetts. Anyone else in Maine. And so my message to you is that we just have to keep standing up. In the words of that spiritual, we are not going to let nobody turn us around."
After the rally, most of the attendees marched around Boston Common before concluding the event. There were no counter-demonstrators, no police present, and no arrests.
