Today
Sections
More
Features
advertisement
|
your ad here
Home of the San Francisco Chronicle
- Bay Area & State
- Nation
- World
- Politics
- Crime
- Tech
- Obituaries
- Education
- Green
- Science
- Health
- Weird
- Opinion
Maine Question 1
Maine's Question 1 full coverage
Here's a complete run down of our coverage of Maine's Question 1, the initiative to overturn the state's law legalizing same sex marriage. Joe Garofoli went to Maine and brought back a multifaceted perspective on story, follow it here.
A full archive of his blog posts on the trip replete with photos and videos of the participants.
His feature article that ran in the Chronicle on October 28, 2009.
| October 28 2009 at 04:22 PM
Californians helping Maine affirm same sex marriage law
On Nov. 3 a landmark vote on same sex marriage will take place in Maine. There voters will cast ballots on a measure known as Question 1. It will be the first time that voters can decide whether to affirm a same sex ballot measure that was approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor. You can read more about it in Wednesday's Chronicle. What follows is one in a series of video blogs where some Mainers -- and in this case, Californians who are visiting Maine -- talk about the issue.
Lewiston, ME -- Californians, in particular, are watching Maine's same sex marriage vote closely. And some, like Demi Espinoza, Daniel Shad and Gabe Gonzalez, care so passionately about the issue that they're giving up their vacation time to volunteer in Maine to preserve gay marriage there.
Each is an organizer with Equality California and they're helping get college students to vote in central Maine. The feeling is, if they can get more younger people to the polls here, they can blunt the power and influence of the Catholic Church in this part of the state which has a heavy French Catholic influence.
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Gonzalez, Espinoza and Shad plot strategy at Bates College in Maine
Now a lot of Mainers are dubious about taking advice from people outside the state -- or "from away" -- as they say here. But some Mainers, like No on 1 organizer Emily Foller appreciates the out-of-state volunteer help. Her tip for identifying a Californian in Maine: "They're the ones wearing hats and gloves. A real Mainer would never wear that kind of stuff this early."
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Gonzalez and Espinoza comb voter lists outside Bates College in Lewiston, ME. Note how bundled up the Californians are
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Transcontinental democracy in action: Mainers (and Bates College students) Gardiner Nardini and Hunter Archibald vote after being drive to the polls by Californian Gabe Gonzalez
Here are Daniel Shad and Demi Espinoza describing their Maine journey in their own words:
| October 28 2009 at 02:22 PM
A Maine Catholic agonizes over opposing the church over same sex marriage
Lewiston, ME -- Pamella Starbird Beliveau is a devout member of Prince of Peace Parish in Lewiston (pop. 23,690). She and her children were baptized at this central Maine church, and she and her husband were married there. On many Sundays she serves as a lector and Eucharistic minister there.
She also supports same sex marriage, showing her support through a rainbow colored necklace she crocheted to hold a three-inch crucifix she wears around her neck.
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Beliveau wears this to Mass on Sundays -- and throughout the week
A couple of Sunday ago, the priest announced that instead of the weekly homily, the diocese had asked churches to play a DVD urging parishioners to oppose legalizing same sex marriage in the upcoming election, Beliveau got up and walked to the back of the church.
Beliveau, a member of Catholics for Marriage Equality, explains what happened:
| October 28 2009 at 02:22 PM
A Maine parent and substitute teacher on same sex marriage
On Nov. 3 a landmark vote on same sex marriage will take place in Maine. There voters will cast ballots on a measure known as Question 1. It will be the first time that voters can decide whether to affirm a same sex ballot measure that was approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor. You can read more about it in Wednesday's Chronicle. What follows is one in a series of video blogs where some Mainers -- and in this case, Californians who are visiting Maine -- talk about the issue.
Lisbon, ME -- Stopped by this small central Maine town to visit with Debra A. Wagner. She is self-described "orthodox Episcopalian," and come to her opposition to same sex marriage from a deeply devout reading of church law.
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Debra A. Wagner: Same sex marriage opponent
But Wagner is also a parent and substitute teacher. One of the biggest battles over Question 1 is whether same sex marriage will be taught in the schools. The anti-same sex marriage side has repeatedly asserted in campaign commercials that it would be taught in schools. But earlier this month, Maine's attorney general said "The state's definition of marriage has no bearing on curricula of public schools."
Here's what Wagner had to say:
| October 28 2009 at 02:05 PM
Maine's pro-same sex marriage field leader outlines the path to victory
On Nov. 3 a landmark vote on same sex marriage will take place in Maine. There voters will cast ballots on a measure known as Question 1. It will be the first time that voters can decide whether to affirm a same sex ballot measure that was approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor. You can read more about it in Wednesday's Chronicle. What follows is one in a series of video blogs where some Mainers talk about the issue.
Portland, ME -- One of the criticisms of California's failed anti-Proposition 8 campaign was that it didn't do enough grassroots outreach. The folks who are trying to keep same sex marriage legal in Maine hope they've learned some lessons from that.
Most turnout estimates project that 500,000 Mainers will vote in Tuesday's election. The No on 1 (pro-same sex marriage) campaign -- in the person of senior field consultant Darlene Huntress -- believes that they have found 275,000 people who will vote their way. Now, she said, it's their job to get them to show up at the polls.
Also chatted with Mary Conroy, the volunteer coordinator for Stand for Marriage Maine. They're concentrating their efforts on a Karl Roveian 72-hour-before-the-election day get-out-the-vote effort. They're modeling it on the Bush-Cheney campaigns here, both of which lost. They expect at least 4,500 volunteers in the field for their GOTV.
Here's Huntress explaining how Maine's same sex marriage supporters have been building for this campaign for years:
| October 28 2009 at 12:08 PM
The view on same sex marriage from a Maine boat yard
Biddeford, ME -- Stopped by Rumery's Boat Yard here Biddeford (pop. 23,000) where a half-dozen guys were taking a mid-morning break, huddled around the two boxes of doughnuts the boss dropped off.
More people around here are worried about keeping their jobs. In June, a 159-year-old textile mill, the last in town, closed, putting another 121 people out of work in this blue collar town bounded by wealthy vacationers who summer on the nearby shore — and have their boats repaired in the yard. (Yard is a converted 100-year-old powerplant.)
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Rumery's Boat Yard in Biddeford
The guys were funny and friendly and goofing on each other like co-workers who had grown tight.
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
The guys at Rumery's Boat Yard after our political roundtable on Question 1
"If all the ignorant people in Biddeford don't vote, (same sex marriage) will win," said Graham Ganz, 31, the yard manager who supports same sex marriage.
The guys laugh. Several start chiming in at the same about the campaign. "Those TV ads against gay marriage are B.S." said one yard worker.
"But the Catholics listen to them," piped in another.
"You're Catholic, are you listening?" said a third.
Here are the fellas, in their own voices:
| October 28 2009 at 10:10 AM
Two Maine neighbors -- one gay, one straight -- who never met until recently, talk about same sex marriage
On Nov. 3 a landmark vote on same sex marriage will take place in Maine. There voters will cast ballots on a measure known as Question 1. It will be the first time that voters can decide whether to affirm a same sex ballot measure that was approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor. You can read more about it in Wednesday's Chronicle. What follows is one in a series of video blogs where some Mainers talk about the issue.
Bangor, ME -- Jean Barry and Jay Fletcher live about 100 yards away from each other in rural Bangor. Jean is vehemently opposed to same sex marriage and is handing out signs for the campaign from her house. Jay lives with his partner -- and planted signs in front of his house after he saw Jean's.
I met them -- separately -- only a day or two after they met each other. Jean was looking at buying a car Jay was selling. "He's a very friendly guy," she said.
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
A sign that stands in Jean Barry's front yard
Joe Garofoli/San Francisco Chronicle
Pastor Roger Tracy's truck
Here's Jean and Roger Tracy, who stopped by to pick up some Yes on 1 signs. Tracy is a retired sheriff's deputy who pastors a 100-person evangelical church nearby. It used to be liberal, he said, "but I've tried to bring them along," he said and laughed. Pastor Tracy also said while he has gay friends, he doesn't know any homosexuals who are happy.
And here's Jay, with one of the Dobermans he and his partner raise. He has grown up in Bangor and said he hasn't experienced any anti-gay bigotry in the several years that he has been out as a gay man.
| October 28 2009 at 07:08 AM
Lumberjack Maine pastor films his own anti-same sex marriage ads
On Nov. 3 a landmark vote on same sex marriage will take place in Maine. There voters will cast ballots on a measure known as Question 1. It will be the first time that voters can decide whether to affirm a same sex ballot measure that was approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor. You can read more about it in Wednesday's Chronicle. What follows is one in a series of video blogs where some Mainers talk about the issue.
Ken Graves worked as a lumberjack for the first nine years after he started the Calvary Chapel in Orrington (pop. 3,526) near Bangor. Twenty-five years later, the 47-year-old still sports the thick arms and toughened hands of someone who specialized in felling the most difficult trees in the forest.
Now, Graves towers over one of the largest evangelical Christian congregations in Maine --1,500 folks, many who drive here from all over northern Maine on Sunday. The nine-acre campus includes a school and an in-patient facility for people battling drug and alcohol addictions.
One afternoon last week, he and videographer John Hileman drove his beat-up Dodge pickup down to the nearby Penobscot River to film their own 30-second commercial. You would, too, if you had Graves' voice, which I told him sounded like pipes belonging to the legendary James Earl Jones. "The little white version," he quipped.
Standing at the river's edge, clad in a red plaid flannel shirt, Graves riffs -- without notes -- several different versions of 30-second spots opposing same sex marriage. He'll spend "a few thousand dollars" to air it locally, and will devote the next episode of his weekly Sunday morning TV show to the issue. It's the first time that he's gotten involved in statewide political campaign.
Here's one version of the ads Graves riffed off as he was standing down by the river:
And here's a snippet of a piece that Graves was filming for his weekly Sunday morning religious show that airs on local Bangor TV:
And here's Graves talking about Question 1:
And here's the finished version of the ad:
| October 28 2009 at 04:06 AM
Welcome to the Politics blog.
By Wyatt Buchanan, Michael Collier, Richard Dunham, Bob Egelko, Joe Garofoli, Marisa Lagos, Carolyn Lochhead, Carla Marinucci, Read Bios
advertisement
|
your ad here
more