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60,000 Mainers sign on to defend marriage equality

60,000 Mainers sign on to defend marriage equality

mfm-logoMarriage equality organization Maine Freedom to Marry announced July 30 that 60,000 Mainers have signed pledges defending the state’s marriage equality bill.

“Volunteers, ready and willing to go door to door and speak neighbor to neighbor to protect marriage equality, are the fuel of our campaign to defeat Question 1,” Jesse Connolly, Campaign Manager of Maine Freedom to Marry, said in a statement July 30.

“These 60,000 pledges, collected by Maine volunteers and the campaign’s professional field staff, demonstrate that our grassroots effort is a campaign about Maine, by Maine people and consistent with Maine values. Ours is a campaign of Mainers committed to talk to their families, their friends and their coworkers to preserve marriage equality.”

Opponents of the bill, signed into law on May 6 by Maine Governor John Baldacci, have gathered more than 100,000 signatures garnering support for a referendum on this November’s ballot. The Secretary of State’s office has until September 4 to verify at least 55,087 of the signatures collected by marriage equality opponents Stand for Marriage for the referendum to appear.

“Theirs is a campaign fueled not by Maine volunteers but by paid out of state operatives,” Connolly said of the bill’s opponents. “Fairness and equality are too precious to be sold to the highest bidder.”

This report appeared in:baywindows

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