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03/21/2012
Mike Heath, once shunned, vows to take top Maine marriage role; that's awesome for us!
This is verrrry interesting:
PORTLAND, Maine (WTW) — Two longtime opponents of gay rights and same-sex marriage initiatives are forming a political action committee to oppose Maine's same-sex marriage referendum.
Michael Heath and Paul Madore said Tuesday they've formed the No Special Rights PAC to oppose November's ballot measure asking voters if same-sex marriage should be legalized.
*KEEP READING: Longtime gay marriage opponents form PAC in Maine [AP via Bangor Daily News]
I say it's interesting, because as longtime G-A-Y readers will remember, the official marriage campaign in Maine in 2009 made a concerted decision to push the outspoken Mike Heath onto the sidelines. I noticed it, because I'm obsessively perceptive about this kind of stuff. But Heath's exclusion was later confirmed to be by multiple "pro-family" activists who were enraged by the way the campaign pushed Mike out of public view (*Read this piece, in which Heath's equally outspoken pal Linda Harvey takes the Stand For Marriage Maine campaign to task for shunning Heath and Madore).
The reason why the '09 campaign shunned Mike was obvious to folks on both sides. His supporters would say it was because he is direct and honest about gays and their rights, and I would say it's because his script veers way off the carefully workshopped message that groups like NOM use to dupe the public into believing their campaigns are driven by love rather than discrimination and/or animus. But regardless of where you fall, the undeniable reality is that Mike speaks his mind regardless of political liability. This of course means that the 2012 campaign against us could be a very different Maine marriage referendum -- one that will be filled with many opportunities for us to seize!
Hopefully we'll seize them.
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