Gov. Baldacci - DPosted on 02/27/2005 10:20:18 AM PST by SheLion
BANGOR - Setting up a fight with social conservatives, Gov. John Baldacci on Friday submitted a gay rights bill he said would, besides prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, improve Maine's economy. "In our state we treat people the way we want to be treated," Baldacci told a morning meeting of business leaders in Bangor, where he announced the bill's filing. "It's not special rights, we're just giving people equal rights."
The bill would amend the Maine Human Rights Act to add sexual orientation as a class protected against discrimination in employment, housing and education. Race, gender, religion, age, and physical and mental disabilities are among the protected classes already in the act.
Baldacci's choice of venue for the announcement was atypical by design, his aides said, with the Action Committee of 50 meeting at Husson College in Bangor providing a chance to look beyond the obvious social impacts of the law and explore its economic advantages. The governor said Friday the new law would attract workers and better position Maine as a welcoming and tolerant state.
Support for gay rights has been mixed in Maine over the years. In 1995, voters rejected an anti-gay rights initiative. Two years later, they repealed a law extending civil rights protections to homosexuals. In 2000, voters rejected a second attempt to add gays and lesbians to the list of protected classes.
The Christian Civic League of Maine has been involved in all of those political fights, which many pundits rank among the state's most emotional and divisive of the past decade.
Michael Heath, the league's director, on Friday repeated his group's intentions to defeat the bill in the Legislature and at least ask that the matter go back before voters.
As it stands, Baldacci's bill would not require voter approval at referendum.
Should lawmakers pass the measure as written, Heath promised a swift repeal effort.
"It's pure unadulterated elitism given the history of this issue," Health said of Baldacci's preference to let the Legislature settle the matter.
But Betsy Smith, executive director of Equality Maine, said the Legislature is the most effective setting to decide the bill's fate.
"That's their job, to study these bills," said Smith, adding she was thrilled with its reintroduction. "They can sit down and study this issue more than voters can."
Maine is the only New England state in which laws do not explicitly protect homosexuals from discrimination.
While there is no statewide law, about a dozen communities - including Bangor - have statutes on the books ensuring equal rights for gays and lesbians.
The governor's gay rights legislation is not the only bill expected to prompt debate over homosexuality this session.
A second bill, sponsored by Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, seeks to outlaw abortion if a child carries an as-yet undiscovered gene determining homosexuality.
"Most people would agree that to kill someone just because that person might be gay would constitute a hate crime," Duprey said, in a news release arguing some mothers would abort their fetuses if they carried the so-called "gay gene."
Duprey is an ardent opponent of gay marriage and of extending the human rights act to homosexuals.
Smith on Friday declined comment on Duprey's bill.
Nicole Clegg, spokeswoman for the Family Planning Association of Maine, was candid in her opposition to the bill, simply calling it "an unfortunate use of the Legislature's time."
Gov. Baldacci - D
The governor is just trying to bypass the people on this bill. He's using as a distraction while his other bad budgetary plans may get passed. He'll drop this bad idea, if they pass his other bad ideas.
"The bill would amend the Maine Human Rights Act to add sexual orientation as a class protected against discrimination in employment, housing and education."
I didn't realize that this was a problem.
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