GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 20, 1998

SPEAK OUT

Maine's lesson: Change the way we campaign

by Eric Resnick

The repeal of Maine's Human Rights Act has now become the model that anti-gay activists will attempt to build future referenda on.

While they celebrate their victory, wise civil rights activists will look at the situation there and see the obvious: The rules have changed.

Following Maine, we must look past the "spin" and recognize some very fundamental truths about what happened. Only then can we continue with the forward progress of our movement. When we do, we will find that some of the strategies used by gay activists since the Stonewall riots need to be revisited.

We lost in Maine because we lost sight of

the basics: The side that gets the votes wins. This is not to find fault with the fine

campaign mounted by Maine Won't Dis-

criminate and other pro-gay civil rights groups. Their campaign was efficient, and extremely well run. Volunteers worked tirelessly. But it wasn't enough for our side to stave off the repeal.

The paradigm has shifted. In order to hold on to gains we have already made in every state, we must change how we engage the Christian right.

Prior to Maine, the Christian right attempted to increase power and influence much the same way we did; by increasing visibility and working through the establishment to gain political access and legitimacy.

In Maine, however, the Christian right went totally underground. They disappeared from everyone's radar screen—and that's exactly why they were so effective.

Maine can hardly be considered a homophobic state. In fact, Maine has more openly gay state officials than any state in the union. Polls in Maine consistently showed that 66 percent of Mainers favored equal opportunity in employment for gay and lesbian people. Maine voters defeateed the 1995 initiative barring municipalities from passing gay-rights ordinances. Maine Won't Discriminate had the support of Maine's popular governor, Angus King, and most of the legislature. Maine Won't Discriminate raised a lot of money and ran effective advertisements.

So, what went wrong?

Even though polls showed gay civil rights supporters consistently at around 66 percent of the state's population, the majority of voters didn't bother to vote. In a typical Maine election, nearly 70 percent of eligible voters go to the polls. On February 10, a mere 31 percent voted.

Gay activists were out-organized, plain and simple. The Christian right used lists compiled by the petition drive, 900 fundamentalist churches, and their field organizations already established.

In most of Maine's 512 towns, every registered voter got a call urging them to get to the polls and vote to repeal. In some of

those towns, the voter turnout exceeded other elections. Maine Won't Discriminate had no lists and no identified voters. Even so, the election was decided by as little as 5 to 10 votes per town.

Gay organizations and gay-friendly organizations have lists, too. The trouble is, we don't use them in elections. Most gay organizations guard their lists for reasons of confidentiality. They are used only internally. As long as the enemy remains organized and underground, we need to re-think the use of our lists. Our allies need to be

made an appearance at a rally. When asked who paid for her trip to Maine, she replied, "Let's just say the Lord provides."

The PACs leading the campaign to repeal failed to file their financial statements on time. Campaign co-chair Paul Volle said he was "too busy doing campaign work to file on time."

Perhaps the answer is to file complaints and motions in court every time we find violations. We might not win, but it exposes their tactics to the public and may delay them. It will at least cost them money to defend their actions.

Low-profile, "vote-with-us-because-

ineffective against fearmongering lies. We need to give ourselves permission to "go negative," even if it seems ugly.

In Maine, the Christian right we're-right" positive media campaigns are went totally underground. They disappeared from everyone's radar screenand that's exactly why they were so effective.

willing to give us their lists for election purposes.

No more all-volunteer campaigns. In Maine, the Christian right had paid staff in every county under the cover of "special projects" and funded by the national Christian Coalition. We are not competitive when we expect people with jobs and families to get the job done in their spare time. Organizers of large groups of volunteers have to be paid and accountable.

We have long recognized that referenda are difficult for us. It's time to identify why and make the correction because, after the right's victory in Maine, we can expect many

more.

Maine's referendum was controlled by a very sophisticated strategy out of the national Christian Coalition office. The organizers in Maine were merely foot soldiers. Because the "front" people were unimpressive and appeared disorganized, nobody predicted they could win the election, fueling the apathy that kept people home on election day. It was not until two days before the election that there were any signs of the sandbagging. By then it was too late.

From now on, when the Christian right appears broke, disorganized and blustery, we need to realize it is part of their master plan. The real money is hidden. The real organization is stealth. It's time to get suspicious.

As long as they are doing "God's work," the Christian right no longer feels accountable to civil laws. In Maine, the people gathering petition signatures didn't follow state laws. It didn't matter. They knew Judge Cole would rule the petitions valid anyway, and he did.

Speakers were sent in from national organizations without the legal disclosures. Alveda King, the anti-gay niece of Dr. Martin Luther King (who has been rebuked by the slain civil rights leader's widow Coretta Scott King)

In Maine, the righteous Christians told outright lies. Their ads were so misleading that it raised the concern of the director of the Maine Human Rights Commission. They got voters riled up about gay counselors in the Boy Scouts, gay people adopting children, and schools "teaching homosexuality."

One question in an ad asks: Are you afraid that speaking out against homosexual behavior will soon be defined as a hate crime? When collecting signatures, petitioners claimed their initiative would prevent gay people from getting married, when they knew very well that the proposed law dealt only with equality in employment, credit, housing and accomodations.

Our movement has celebrated many important successes during the past year politically and culturally. Every gain we made galvanized our opposition. In April, while we partied with Ellen, they prayed. When President Clinton addressed the Human Rights Campaign, they organized. When most states ignored their anti-same-sex-marriage initiatives, they motivated their faithful. Their organization paid off in Maine.

It is not useful to complain about the violations in Maine. Just because it was not fair does not mean it will change. The change has to be how we do business from this time forward in all 50 states.

We needed to win in Maine. This defeat not only strengthens and emboldens our opposition, it weakens our standing. It makes the gay and lesbian Employment Non-Discrimination Act more difficult to get through Congress because the Christian right proved that it is safe to deny rights to gays even though the majority wants them. More importantly, they proved that the majority doesn't care enough to even give a vote.

This defeat can be turned around only if we take a close look at how we are fighting. We have been too willing to ingratiate ourselves with the establishment at the expense of winning the battles on the streets. Both are important, but referendums are won in the trenches, on the streets, door to door, person to person. The right's victory in Maine is evidence that, unfortunately, our enemies have figured that out. Will we?

GAS PEOPLES CHRONICLE

Volume 13, Issue 17

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