Gay marriage foes in Maine announced
Wednesday that they have managed to put gay marriage in the state on
hold.
Officials behind the Stand for Marriage
Maine coalition say they have gathered sufficient signatures to put
up a recently enacted gay marriage law to a “people's veto.”
Mark Mutty, executive director of the
group, said it took four weeks to gather the more than 55,000
signatures necessary to qualify the measure.
Once the signatures are certified by
the state, the law will be placed on hold until after the results of
a November election are known. Gay marriage was scheduled to begin
September 12.
Stand for Marriage Maine is a coalition
of anti-gay groups led by the National Organization for Marriage, the
nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, and the Catholic
Diocese of Portland.
At least one statistician believes that
gay marriage will survive the ballot box. Nate Silver, who blogs at
fivethirtyeight.com,
collected variables from all fifty states to conclude that gay
marriage acceptance is increasing on average at 2% per year
nationwide. This puts Maine among the 11 states that would most
likely reject a gay marriage ban.