CNN

@singlemom: we are entitled to a church service, too, if we want it. there are plenty of churches out there that will conduct a church ceremony. would you be content to call your relationship a civil union? neither are we.

you libs have it wrong–can't blame conservatives! Are you not aware that Maine is a far left state? Please throw the blame where it belongs–democrat hippocrites. I know many conservatives that love gays–after all we are all children of God.

Whether a gay couple wants to get married does not affect my marriage or anyone elses. Let's live and let live or can't all you bible thumpers stand to do that. Mind your own freakin' business for a change!

CA, Maine the support for inequality is 53%. What percentage would civil rights for African-Americans have gotten in the 60s on the ballot?

Enjoy this pettiness, 53% of you. Your time is passing.

If I was gay and living in Maine I would move or quite paying taxes.

"However, gay and lesbian citizens are asking the rest of us to accept two or three new genders into society, and this is a novel request."

Gender and sexual orientation are NOT the same thing in any way, shape or form.

A group isn't being radical because it wants to be treated with equality. You don't have to like it, and no one is asking you to. All that is being asked is something that has nothing to do with you if you aren't gay yourself. To be treated fairly. If you aren't gay, it hurts you in no way if two people get married. You can't legislate people thoughts, so bigots will be bigots, but you can legislate fairness in people's lives.

This needs to be taken up by the Supreme Court. We are talking about the rights of a group of people. Do they have the right or not? It can't be decided at the state level. That's ridiculous. In some states people have a basic right and in other's they don't? It's not really a right if it isn't recognized by everyone. You can't make it legal to discriminate in one state and say protection from discrimination is a basic right in another. It either is or it isn't.

there is good news once and a while.....

Why is this such an issue for those we think should be the most tolerant????

If a certain religious institution accepts same sex marriages, why can't those who are of another religious institution accept that? Clearly their own churches are not going to bless these unions.

What should happen is a "civil union" contract for all people that is the government binding contract. "Marriage" can be a religious enhancement to that civil union contract. Those churches that wish to bless ALL people may do so as those that will not, wont.

I find it very interesting that the reasoning is always, the Bible says its a sin. The Bible says A LOT of things that tend to be overlooked but somehow this issue is soooooo threatening to sooooo many. I'm thinking there may be insecurities and skeletons in the closets.

While it's very sad, it's not surprising. Referendums are seldom fertile ground for civil rights actions and this was no exception. It just proves that the folks in Maine are not "live and let live", an image they try and project, but are just the same old Bible banging bigots as the rest of this hillbilly nation.

Ah CNN, it appears we have just enough religion to hate each other but not enough to love. Sad day for Humanity.

31 out of 31 states that have put this question to the voters voted against same sex marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman, period. I only hope New Hampshire has the guts to follow suit and ask the people the way they should have done to begin with.

How can these people say "We're not anti-gay," and keep a straight face?! When your major goal is to deny gays the right to marry you ARE anti-gay! END OF STORY!

If homosexuals want some form of institution, let them make one of their own. Marriage is, will be, and always has been, a union between a man and a woman. It is presumptuous and offensive of the radical gay groups to think they can modify an institution that has been around as long as humanity.

And they are not being denied their rights. Any heterosexual is allowed to marry someone of the opposite gender who consents. In the same way, a homosexual can also marry someone of the opposite gender. That's what marriage is.

Amazing how 53-47 in this context is narrowly repealed. But last year it was a landslide.

Sad day for Maine, due to the fact that the Church whos the leader of discrimination against gays won.

A six point spread is not 'narrowly" defeating any statewide referrendum in Maine

Tragic!

But I refuse to lose sight of the fact that 47 in 100 Mainers believe gays should have equal marriage rights.

I will be working on introducing a bill that states a union between heterosexual couples can only be deemed a "marriage" if the ceremony is held in a church – no more court house marriages. Will also be supporting the proposed bill in California that will make divorce illegal. Also, marriage should be nullified if the union does not result in children. This is directed at those sanctimonious jerks doing everything to "protect" traditional marriage. Time to live up to what you preach – God = marriage = children...period.

Gay rights are inevitable. The baby boomers will die off and this chapter of bigotry will end. My son or my Son's children will puzzle over why this injustice took place in the first place.

I think it's sad that in 2009 I'm still fighting for equality and for the legal protections that most adults (note to folks who think this is some sort of slipperty slope: children, animals and things like rocks can't sign legal contracts) take for granted. If the folks who stood against the use of the word "marriage" when defining equality stood as strongly for the legislative process that Fish notes above I might feel differently. But it seems to me more that folks who have the right to marry the consenting adult they want to marry want to keep others of us from doing the same.

I want my gay relatives (we all have gay relatives) to have the same rights I do and the same opportunities. On the issue of gay civil rights, I am all for them.

However, gay and lesbian citizens are asking the rest of us to accept two or three new genders into society, and this is a novel request. We need to spend a little time discussing how this is all going to work out. Do we want cross-dressing students in the public schools? How young? What about bisexuals who have relationships with both biological genders? Most gay couples I have known have a sort-of husband and a sort-of wife. How do we anticipate handling social situations? And so on. People want to know how to behave.

Also, what is the opinion of social scientists on the impact, if any, on children? That is not to say, of course, that heterosexual parents are doing such a fantastic job of raising the current generation of pudgy, under-challenged, non-reading kids.

There is not much to really say. Just read the awful news. The Right once again is WRONG.

Norman

Thank God traditional marriage has been saved! Praise the heavens above! Now the divorce rate will go away, the skies will become blue, spousal abuse will be a thing of the past and...and...and...those who really think that will never wake up from their never-ending dream state. Yeah, sure, traditional marriage is in trouble. Why, just look at how our population has declined. Too bad someone else's lifestyle and freedom gets to be put to a vote.

Bye-bye, Maine. We enjoyed having you here in the 21st century. Too bad your voters just rolled back the clock to 1872. We'll miss you. Hopefully you will catch up some day. Sniff.

In essence, the result of the referendum in maine, is just more of the same rhetoric from conversatives' fear-peddling that human beings are NOT created equal, as unconstitutional as that may be. In God's eyes, no one's earthly station places him or her above the fundemental rights of another and strips another person of the pursuit of happiness. These types of issues should not be turned over to a vote. In essence, what we have here is one group of first class American citizens gleefully voting to keep another group of American citizens in second class status that was not foreseen by this country's founders. America, the land of freedom and the beacon of liberty, with our brave men and women dying for that right in combat. Being gay and loving someone is not a choice. Being gay is not an activity. Civil rights do NOT need a stranger's approval in the form of a public referendum about who another person can love and marry. If that were true, we would still have slavery in this country and it would still be sanctioned by the church. Funny how things aren't allowed until they're allowed. Funny how things you never thought would change do change when it comes to $, power, or political expediency, but hypocrisy doesn't. Hypocrisy is the one constant.

Proud of you, Mainers. Want to move to your state.

Humm, America has gone from Democracy to Plutocracy and it sure looks like it will be a Theocracy soon when the red states next win.

Boy, America and Iran in the same group.

Keep your heads up No on 1 folks. You're on the right side side of history.

Its not surprising that many Mainers despise gay people. I love to visit Maine for its abundant natural beauty but I found many of the people narrow minded and unfriendly. There are many beautiful places to visit in New England so I won't mind avoiding Maine in the future.

Great news! Lets step it up and protect the core values of family life for generations to come. Many greetings to all that made this possible.

seems bigotry is alive and well not only in the south...

Maine is the new Mississippi.....

New Motto: The Way Life Should Be..... for SOME of Us....

and oh ya I'm from Maine.....

Just exactly HOW does same sex marraige threaten someone else's marraige?

Imagine each State voting on the Civil Rights Act- our African-American sisters and brothers would still be further discriminated against...How can Maine vote on, much less against the civil rights of gay couples?

If you want to protect marriage, go back to outlawing divorce!

This issue could be resolved by government offering everyone civil contracts/domestic partnerships and leave the semantics of 'marriage' to individual churches.

It would uphold religious freedoms along with separation of church and state. A win-win for all sides.

There is a God, Christianity reins supreme again in Maine – Thanks be to God.

I am thrilled that our State took this stand. This nation has been going away from religion and moving towards hedonism for years – this sraws a line in the stand. This country is 90% + Chriatian faith, and in the Christian religion, homosexuality is not condoned. Sorry, but it is a sin against God for 90% of the population. This nation was founded "Under God" and our currency bears "In God we Trust." It is about time Christians took back their country.

As for the gays and lesbians who wish to live in sin – I will not prosecute you – I will pray for you. But do not attempt to corrupt the Christian foundation upon which this nation is built.

Pretty ironic, don't you think?

53% of the people decided that they don't like gay marriage, so there is no gay marriage. Liberals scream in outrage that the 47% aren't heard and obeyed.

53% of the people decide that they want everyone to pay for increases in welfare, car payments, home subsidies, and health care for all, regardless of the cost and who has to pay for it, and the Liberals scream in outrage at even the slightest argument from the 47%.

Liberals are CAKE OWNERS and CAKE EATERS.

Cheers!

So according to this guy discrimination is "the right thing to do?" Good to know, how about we just remove church tax exemption status I mean thats the right thing to do to right?

Just because the Catholic church does not conduct Jewish ceremonies does not give Catholics the right to say Jews shouldn't marry. By the same logic, Gay Marriage equality has absolutely nothing to do with infringing on the power of religions to conduct whatever ceremonies they support. It is only about basic human rights.

At what point do these folks admit defeat for now and simply request civil unions with ALL ATTACHED RIGHTS?

I would march with them to give them ALL THOSE RIGHTS, but never to make marriage being anything other than ONE man and ONE woman.

NOT three women and one man, or marrying your cousin or dog or ANYTHING but ONE man and ONE woman.

31 states have been given the right to voice their opinion on REDEFINING marriage and NO has been the response EVERY time.

All haters, Rethuglicans and bigots, DON'T think so as it is a broad based group that has SAID NO.

Progressives are such crybabies. Everyone who disagrees with them is a bigot. It's childish. And they wonder why only 20% of the population considers themselves to be progressive...

Marriage has religious connotations, and people have a right to maintain their belief of what constitutes marriage. It's the governments fault for calling marriage contracts marriages in the first place instead of civil unions.

If same-sex couples want to get the same privileges as married couples, it's been proven time and time again that their "equality" march isn't going to work. Just look at the voter results in progressive California and progressive Maine. The correct path is Washington, passing "everything but marriage". Either that or recognizing civil unions like Vermont did, but they weren't recognized outside of the state.

I am a Liberal, however, I draw the line at marriage. Problem is that you do not need the "protection of marriage" to be a couple, a Civil Union gives you all the protection you need plus with a Will, with legal contracts Gay couples can have all the protection they want.

Clearly Americans are not in favor of marriage for Gays. Most of us, believe that God created marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman. Period. Its been this way since the Dawn of Time.

Repealing "same sex marriage" is not about hate, at least not for the majority of us. Its about our beliefs, sacred beliefs. Again, I do not hate Gay people, I respect them, I believe that they are entitled to every Right that we, heterosexuals, have. With one exception....... marriage.

I never thought I would say this. Ever. But today I am ashamed to be an American. I thought this country was founded on the belief that "all men are created equal." That being the case, why are men not TREATED as equal?? This is not the America that I believe in. Very sad day, indeed.

Another sad day for this country, when mean spirited citizens opt to deny equal rights under the law to all Americans. Shame on us.

I think that this is the kind of issue that, in the future, needs to be determined by judicial and legislative bodies. Same-sex marriage was approved by Maine's legislature, but was repealed by a democratic referendum.

The reason this likely happened was not because two people of the same gender getting betrothed is wrong to the point of being illegal. I think it just boils down to it being different.

People like the status quo. And those that don't understand that to be a gay person is no better or worse than to be a straight person. Some people have a grossly negative opinion of them (being immoral, choosing to be gay, etc.). What they don't understand is that what they call morality are truly just cultural, social and religious mores and taboos.

Morality does exist, and there is a right thing to do in any situation. But to think that we haven't improved upon our values over the many years, to think that we've always had perfect, mom and pop and 2.5 kids families, that's just illogical. And dangerous. If we couldn't consciously update our values, to understand what's best to do in a given situation, then we would be stuck with laws and codes that are horribly inadequate and incorrect. We can't just stick with a handful of vague generalities on what is good and bad abstractly; we need to adapt and analyze the situation fully.

The other kind of person who voted against 1, which I'd guess is more common, is just plain indifferent to what gay people want. They see it as being loud and demanding, that it doesn't matter if they get married or not. But best to keep the status quo, and stick up for "traditional marriage". Indifference is complacent, and won't rock the boat.

Overall, this kind of decision needs to be made by elected officials on the state and federal level. Those that aren't refusing to grant same-sex couples the right to marry purely because it isn't traditional, but by those that can understand the situation rationally, and see what the right choice to make is. Otherwise, we'd never have seen things like desegregation.

People should not be allowed to vote on civil rights issues. We would still have slavery, women would not have the right to vote, and inter-racial marriage wouls still be illegal if we allowed the public to chose who has rights and who doesn't!

"Supporters of Maine's same-sex marriage law, which voters narrowly repealed, gathered Wednesday to concede the vote but not the issue."

Why is it that CNN says that it was narrowly repealed 53% to 47% and yet that is the same percentage for Obama and McCain respectively and everyone called it a blow out?

Just curious about that one...

I do not condone same sex marriage, but for others, if it makes them happy, what is the harm, it is another form of family

I love how people claim to want to "protect" traditional marriage but really aren't anti-gay. I guess that helps them think they are not homophobic haters who deny others civil rights.

Did not know the folks in maine scraped their knuckles on the ground when they walked. I am so weary of the Flat Earth Society, the most agressively stupid people ever and proud of their condition.

Well, at least some people still have some moral fiber left in them...

The people of Maine did not want it.

So, have a Civil Union and call it a day.

And if you make a will, rights are protected when it comes to property and custody of children.

Everyone (libs at least) keeps crying on and on about the separation of church and state. (Which is NOT in the Constitution by the way – that's about no official religion)
Soooo – why are the libs so gung-ho to have a church ceremony? In a number of states civil unions are possible. Why not have a civil union instead of insisting on marriage? I realize it's splitting hairs, but if you call it a civil marriage, done by a JP, then you don't deal with the far-right.
For the record, I consider myself a moderate/conservative depending on the issue, BUT it's none of my business what two consenting adults do in private. (I have trouble with PDA period. Find a room, folks!)

Even though I'm personally against gay marriage, I would never vote on someone elses "choice". If so called religious people call it a sin, then let God pass judgement, not us.

What's to stop some other crazy person from trying to stop interracial marriage (Louisiana comes to mind), or anything that a few people don't like.

I just don't like putting someone's "choice" to a vote. We the people should not be voting on "we the people".

Too bad. Only a matter of time though.

Let this dumb issue go away!! People can live together, and do whatever they want...why do they need to change the law to feel swell about themselves. So sick of the facists pushing same sex marriage
Grow up!

The people of Maine don't want gays to share their married misery. So what?

Sure makes me glad to live in Canada where we have a Constitution that prevents the majority from voting to force it's will on a minority.

I haven't heard of any public controversy over gay rights or women' rights since Mobey Dick was a minnow as both have received equal rights since back in the 50's.

Please enough of the wedge issue activism. Gays, abortion, religion all need to be kept out of politics...there are so many other urgent issues that need focus other than these endless debates that really have no place in the national spotlight.

Sad.

=(

Thought this was the land of the free?

Wonderful!! So glad to see Americans finally waking up.......

so does this mean same sex couples in Maine can stop paying their state taxes now?

Way to go Maine. Glad to see another state that does not want the country to be destryed.

Another reason we need to vote for only democrats and independents in 2010/2012.

Enough discrimination already. Also no matter how hard the Republicans try to legislate their form of morality it will never succeed.

In the end gay marriage will happen and abortions will remain legal.

For those of you who wuld like to know the real truth!!!! It has nothing to do with treating gay/lesbian couples equal... The majority of Mainers have no problem with them having the same rights as heterol sexual couples, we would just like them to keep marriage by definition as one man – one woman... They can always get a civil union... We do not want the definition of marriage to change... It's been this way since the beginning of time. They can find their own word for the sanctity of marriage. Have a nice day!

That means its going to take longer for those of us that want to marry our sisters to get our legislation passed as well.

Last I checked gay people pay taxes like the rest of us, therefore if two consenting adults want to get married, they surely should not be restricted by the government.

I would have issues with forcing churches to marry them, the church has the right to deny the survice but there are others who can marry who would perform it, again we should all have equal rights.

I certainly have issues with hate crime laws that clearly and factually state that the life of a certain person based on their skin color, ethnicity or sexual partner preference is worth more and worthy of a stricter crime than a life of another person of a different skin color, ethnicity,or sexual partner preference. That's not equal rights either.

It would be nice to form a common sense party for the greatest Americans who truly believe in equal rights and equal freedoms, but until then us decent Americans need to defeat the socialists, once that is done we can convince the center/right majority of supporting gay marriage, we have a better chance of that than convincing the left that targeting Americans you disagree with and wanting to destroy their lives is wrong. Cons at least let gays have free speech, almost all Dems want to take away the free speech of moderates and conservatives.

I'm not gay and I'm not from Maine. I am disappointed in the vote. I was hoping civil rights and people of the great state of Maine would recognize the importance of treating ALL people equal when it comes to marriage and attendant rights. Keep trying.

now that is sad .. we live in america and those of a minority group that doesn't effect the majority in any government or private ,or monitary way still can subdue a minority 's request of fare treatment and equal rights .. makes me sick to think any religious group would have any involvment in saying weither any group of people have fewer rights because of a simple choice of who they choose to live with ,, makes me sick real sick .. its not up to repigious groups to decied who has rights .. to me religion looks more like a dictatorship of threats and fear and control of the mass of humanity ... if we do have a God then when did he or she give humanity the right to persecute each other ..it takes us back to the DARK AGES. AND THAT TO ME IS SICK..:(

I hope anyone who voted to repeal the law has a gay child someday. Maybe then they'll learn something about love and respect.