The only way to go is to get the show on the road.

This bickering back and forth is just a waste of everybody's time and energies.

Now we'll see how everyone feels about it as people come out into the open and show their true colors, as the old folk used to say.

I have no intention what so ever of getting married straight, gay or bi sexual in a Church, in City Hall or under the waterfalls at Cascade Park.by a Judge, a City Clerk, Rabbi, Minister or Priest.

However, for people who feel the need to legally bind a companion to them 24 hours a day then I say,"Go for it."

As I already said on the previous News blog, were I in Bangor right now I'd certainly be volunteering to get this much needed Human Rights Legislation passed and I hope that all my dear friends and loved ones who still reside in Bangor-Brewer and the state of Maine will get out and help push this legislation to its legal limits if only to show the rest of the world what wonderful understanding people there are living in the place I still consider to be home!

Perley J. Thibodeau

New York, New York

why not simplify the whole thing and get the state out of the "marriage" business altogether. just give the benefits to those who have been joined in a civil union don't allow clergy to perform civil unions. if you want the benefits go to city hall, after wards go to a church for a marriage. thats the way its done in china and no one objects. make marriage a religious ceremony and no more

Generally when a law change like this comes from the legislature or the courts it seems to be approved, likely with this legislature. When there is a public citizen vote it is defeated. Chances are pretty good this issue will at some time come before the voters. This bill and law should be crafted with the voters in mind.

If a gay couple has a civil union or otherwise, it will not diminish the strength of my marriage. Anyone that argues otherwise is either weak-minded or has a lousy marriage.

I'm tired of a certain crowd imposing their set of values on the rest of society, no one's telling them how to live.

Let me re-phrase my last sentence... This bill and law should be crafted with the likelyhood of a peoples vote on the issue in mind.

vichet,

Keep one thing in mind.

If left to the voters exclusively, the whole civil rights movement would have failed, interracial marriage would still be outlawed in the majority of states, and a woman's right to choose what to do with her body and nonviable growths therein would never be where they are today.

Voter opinion often represent mob-rule, which is no way to run a country. Sometimes a majority simply means all the fools are on the same side.

I am not saying it should be put to a vote but instead urge caution in wording. You also cannot ram things through without considering your opposition and the plays they will make.

Wonders if tedlick voted for Obama and if Obama voters were mob fools?

Comnsenz,

I did not vote for Obama. I would not, in fact, vote for such a liberal candidate.

Any other questions?

It is far beyond time when Maine should have passed legislation broadening marriage rights to include any two people (of age, not disallowed by reasons of blood ties) who wish to marry. Marriage is a civil contract, and carries with it many legal obligations and many legal rights, and there is no actual justification (unless one counts prejudice as a justification) for restricting marriage to a contract between a man and a woman, and more than there was justification for keeping inter-racial couples from marrying. The argument that broadening the umbrella to allow more people to marry could somehow cause harm to anyone else's marriage is absurd on the face of it, as eloquently made clear in this piece by Slate's Dahlia Lithwick:

http://www.slate.com/id/2091475/ .

When creating law, it is good to recall the words my high school history teach quoted many years ago: Whose ox is being gored? In creating a law that keeps people who want to get married from doing so, the answer is clear. In creating law that allows more people the same rights that the majority now enjoys, the answer is also clear: no one. At no cost to the majority can this discrimination against a minority be ended.

In many ways, Maine people are among the best in the nation when it comes to neighborliness, when it comes to letting people alone, when it comes to helping neighbors who need it, when it comes to being fair and even handed. In this matter, it is important to avoid distraction by a small, loud minority of bigots who have no valid arguments to bring to the table save their own personal beliefs-- and personal beliefs are not any sort of basis for sound public policy. Cite things like fairness, equality under the law, even-handedness, reason. Those sorts of things are and should be the basis for sound public policy.

With the world fastly becoming over populated space and resource wise it may well be a part of nature's plan to control this ever threatening overcrowding problem.

After all, we've already seen what has happened to the world because of couples who can procreate!

Perley J. Thibodeau

Mainellyme

New York New York

If we ban gay marriage to promote the sanctity and the holiness of marriage, we should with the same mentality put on the books to ban divorce. If constituents moan and groan that gay marriage will ruin marriage as a whole, then let's protect marriage for everyone from those current heterosexuals that make marriage a joke by doing it 3 to 5 times and not "until death do us part." If they wish to play the bible thumping game, let's make them realize that they have tarnished the sacrament of marriage by demoting it to a phase people may go through for a certain amount of time until they get tired of the union. Don't hold another group of people to a standard you cannot maintain yourself.

What both sides typically fail to understand is that marriage was a civil affair for 1500 years -- church weddings were not commonplace until the late middle ages. Our western traditions around marriage have more to do with Roman custom than they do with Christian custom. They are contractual relationships between free individuals, which is why the service begins with the declaration of consent by the two individuals. It is indisputable that the right to marry one another freely is one of the last remaining legal forms of discrimination.

Churches whose clergy perform marriages are actually doing so under the permission and authority of the state. Clergy are functioning as minor civil magistrates when they marry. By returning marriage to its rightful place as a civil matter it actually frees the different religions to bless or religiously marry whom they choose under their own doctrines. Let churches do whatever they want. Liberal clergy who are for equal rights would do well to abstain from marrying all persons until the right is granted to all. They can perform blessings in their churches freely and without interference from the state.

Cliff Guthrie, professor of ethics and religion at Husson University and Bangor Theological Seminary

Very well put, Cliff! I wouldn't *force* any *church* to marry people they didn't want to. But the civil aspect of marriage is what's on the table, the contractual business. And this discrimination in the matter of the civil marriage, as you note, should come to an end.

Pass it; sign it; shut up about it. Read up on equal-marriage states' revenues. Can Maine afford to allow religious intereference in civil administrative matters?

Gays should NOT be allowed to marry. Don't encourage the evil!

JoyJessun,

Evil is a religious concept.

Civil law is not based in your superstition.

IE, keep your religion in church.

We'll keep our civil law out of church.

Thanks.

Sighhhhhh...whatever happened to "Mind your own business and keep out of mine?' I cannot see the purpose of arguing over who someone chooses to engage in a relationship with if I live to be 100. There's a frank difference between doing something inherently "evil" to another soul, and butting your nose into something that affects no one but those involved. Do those of us who are "traditionally" married care to have someone else butt into our relationships? I think not. People can site chapter and verse of the Bible all they want. I'll take "Do unto others as you will have them do unto you."

Hello Bangor,

I read this editorial in my Down East. I have lots of family in mid-coast, Dad is a transplant to NY. How gratified and thrilled I was to read such forward thinking. I tried to paraphrase and send forward your thoughts to our local paper, I hope I did the thoughts justice. I was also thrilled to hear the support when reading through these comments. I'm active in marriage rights in NY and am hopeful that we will pass legislation similar to the one proposed in Maine here in NY. I am hopeful that people will begin to see the difference between civil law and religious blessing of marriage. I am one of many who would like to join myself legally to someone who shares my gender, someone I have been with for 15 years, toughed out some hard times with, enjoyed the blessings that our families, friends, neighbors and co-workers bring to our lives. I'm a born and raised Catholic, one who does not practice because of the church stand on who and what I am. I would never look for a priest to bless my union, I only want what my siblings have, the right to join my life legally to the person I work with every day to make that life. We have done some of the legal maneuvers to ensure inheritance, I have made legal appointments of power of attorney and health care proxy and advanced directives but I cannot offer my health benefits to my partner until I marry him. I cannot offer him the benefits of my social security benefits should I die before him, nor he his to me. Keep fighting Maine, keep doing the right thing, avoid the fear mongers and express your thoughts as your own. Look to someone gay that you know and pass the word that we too only want what others want, a home, a family, the dignity that comes from acceptance and the rights granted automatically to the majority of our friends, family and neighbors. For those who spoke positively here, posting rational thoughts and ideas, thank you. For those who see me and think evil, god bless you.