Mike Heath, who headed church outreach
for the Ron Paul campaign in Iowa, will work against Maine's gay
marriage referendum, the
AP reported.
After lawmakers approved a gay marriage
law in 2009, it was narrowly repealed with a “people's veto” at
the ballot box later that same year.
Marriage equality supporters, led by
EqualityMaine, submitted more than 105,000 signatures to return the
issue to the ballot box this fall. Citing various polls, supporters
say Maine is ready to become the first state to approve marriage
equality by referendum.
Heath was pushed out of the Christian
conservative group Maine Family Policy Council, which he headed for
15 years, over his aggressive anti-gay sentiments as the group pushed
for repeal of the law.
Heath and Paul Madore said that they
have formed the No Special Rights PAC. Madore once headed the
anti-gay rights group Main Grassroots Coalition.
“There's no basis in nature for a
right to sodomy or a right to call two men or two women who are
choosing to relate to one another sexually as a marriage,” Heath
said. “There's no intrinsic or natural right to that. So we
believe that these are special rights.”
“It's going to be a fight,” Madore
said.
David Farmer, spokesman for the Dirigo
Family PAC, which supports the referendum, said the entry wasn't a
surprise.