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Organizations on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate are ramping up their advertising campaigns on television and radio.
Both sides have accused the other of skirting the issue, and Stand for Marriage Maine — a group advocating for elimination of Maine’s same-sex marriage law — has come under heavy fire for its advertisements.
Mark Sullivan, spokesperson for Protect Maine Equality, said his organization wants to ensure same-sex couples are not discriminated against, and that allowing all couples to marry is the only way to prevent such discrimination.
Stand for Marriage Maine has released two radio advertisements and two television advertisements. One advertisement features a Boston College law professor who says “legal experts predict a flood of lawsuits against individuals, small businesses and religious groups” if the bill passes and that “homosexual marriage [will be] taught in public schools, whether parents like it or not.”
Its second advertisement features Charla Bansley, a teacher at Calvary Chapel Christian School in Orrington and Maine director of Concerned Women for America, an organization dedicated to bringing biblical principles to all levels of public policy, according to its Web site. In the advertisement, Bansley says the new law would result in “homosexual marriage being taught in Maine schools,” and a Massachusetts couple talks about their 7-year-old boy reading “King & King” — a book about a prince who marries another man — in school.
David Connerty-Marin, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education, said L.D. 1020 would not affect Maine’s education system. Connerty-Marin said the state does not require ‘family life’ classes, and such classes generally do not include discussion about marriage. Schools that do discuss marriage do so on a school-by-school basis, so the decision whether or not to discuss same-sex marriage would be the school’s.
“The fact of the matter is that Maine law makes no reference whatsoever to the teaching of marriage in schools. And so, any changes to the marriage laws would have no effect whatsoever on if or how it’s taught in Maine schools,” Connerty-Marin said.
The No on 1 campaign, run by Protect Maine Equality, has released four advertisements thus far — two standalone advertisements and two responding to those made by Stand for Marriage Maine. Its first advertisements feature a young man with two mothers who says he wants his parents to be seen the same as a heterosexual couple, and Bill Whitten, a Yarmouth resident and UMaine alum who has two daughters, one straight and one gay. Whitten, who played football in college and later joined the Marine Corps, said he’s “been through a transition” and is “much more accepting of everybody. Everyone should be allowed to live the way they live.”
Scott Fish, communications director for Stand for Marriage Maine, said, “The issue isn’t whether someone is talking about gay marriage in the classroom,” but defended the advertisement.
“For now, for example, when marriage comes up, it’s generally taught in what they call family life classes,” Fish said. “[Right now] they talk about the legal definition of marriage, between one man and one woman. If the new law says, ‘No, that’s no longer the definition of marriage in Maine,’ then marriage becomes almost ‘any two will do.’ And that’s what will be taught in classrooms. And I think — our side thinks — that that’s a big change, and will have a big impact.”
Fish said the No on 1’s advertisements don’t talk about why marriage should be redefined in Maine. “At issue, what the vote is about, is the redefining of marriage in Maine, and I don’t see that any of those TV ads talk about that,” Fish said. “They talk about all different kinds of things, but they don’t tell redefining marriage and law is a good thing. They don’t tell Mainers why it’s in Maine’s best interest to have a legal redefining of marriage, and yet that’s what the vote is about on Nov. 3.”
Sullivan said Yes on 1’s advertisements miss the bill’s point.
“If any ads are skirting the issues, it’s the ads that are coming from our opponents, because our ads deal directly with the issues that are at stake in Question 1, which is fairness and equality for all Maine people,” Sullivan said. “Marriage equality means that all Mainers will be recognized to have the same rights under the law. That’s what’s at stake on Nov. 3. The issues that Scott [Fish] raises and have been raised in their ads have nothing to do with what’s on the ballot on Nov. 3.”
“The marriage law does not reference education in any way, shape or form, so to raise this as an issue is strictly to distract away from the real issues of the campaign and to try and evoke negative passions which are not in the best interest of making good public policy,” Sullivan said.
Bangor Daily News