Fight over gay unions in Maine

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A year ago, Robin and Robb Wirthlin went to Riverside Wesleyan Church in Sacramento, Calif., to warn Californians about what they feared might happen if gay marriage remained legal in the state.

The Mormon couple from Massachusetts, who also were featured in television advertisements in California, said they were horrified after gay marriage was legalized in their own state. They said their 7-year-old son came home from school and told them his teacher had read “King and King,” a fairy tale about two princes who wed.

Now the Wirthlins are carrying the same message on television ads in Maine, where voters will decide the fate of gay marriage in their state Nov. 3.

The Maine vote is the first in the nation on same-sex marriage since Californians voted to reject gay marriage last November. The vote overruled a decision by the California Supreme Court, which had legalized gay marriage.

So California’s long fight over same-sex marriage has moved temporarily to New England, where many of the same players are slugging it out, often using the same strategies that worked so well for opponents in the Golden State.

“They truly are pulling out the exact same playbook,” said Marc Solomon, the marriage director of Equality California, a pro-gay marriage group.

Among the Californians involved:

UOpponents in Maine hired Schubert Flint Public Affairs of Sacramento, the firm owned by Frank Schubert that conducted California’s campaign against gay marriage.

UA pro-gay marriage group called Californians Against Hate persuaded the Maine ethics commission to vote 3-2 to investigate the fund-raising procedures of one of its foes, the National Organization for Marriage.

UEquality California has donated at least $25,000 and sent 11 of its staffers to help its counterpart group in Maine.

UChris Clark, a former Sacramento pastor who’s now the pastor of East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church in San Diego, showed up at an anti-gay marriage rally in Augusta to say that what happened in California last year can happen again in Maine.

“Because I’m a pastor, because I’m a follower of Jesus Christ, I saw God’s hand directly involved in moving hearts and minds in California and turning out a vote to protect his definition of what marriage is, which is distinctly between one man and one woman,” Clark said. “That’s not our idea, it’s God’s idea; he designed it. ... Even though man takes liberties and twists it and distorts it, that was never the original intent.”

Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate, said he thought that forces on the ground were more important.

“I would give more credit to Frank Schubert ... and the Mormon Church and the record-breaking fundraising of $40 million,” he said.

Karger said there were two key differences between California and Maine: In Maine, he said, the Roman Catholic Church is part of the opposition, and opponents in Maine aren’t nearly as well-funded as they were in California.

Otherwise, he said, “it’s almost a carbon copy of what we saw in California, where the right to same-sex marriage was given ... and now the same people are just hell-bent on taking away that right. It’s a boilerplate campaign.”

One of the fiercest fights is on the airwaves, where television ads allege that gay marriage will be taught in public schools if voters approve it.

In one ad, Robin Wirthlin looks into the camera and says: “After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, our son came home and told us the school taught him that boys can marry other boys.” Her husband adds: “We tried to stop public schools from teaching children about gay marriage, but the courts said we had no right to object, to pull him out of class.”

Karger and others say that schools wouldn’t be required to teach anything about gay marriage.

“It’s their modus operandi,” Karger said. “They just lie in these commercials. They were refuted in California, and they’re being refuted in Maine.”

Maine’s education commissioner tried to quell the controversy by asking for a state investigation to determine whether the claims were true. After Attorney General Janet Mills conducted a legal analysis, she said the gay-marriage law would do nothing to change school curricula.

Marc Mutty, the chairman of Stand for Marriage Maine, an anti-gay marriage group, said Mills’ decision was no surprise because she backed gay marriage and was using her office for “a transparent political stunt.”