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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Angela Dallara
Communications Associate, Freedom to Marry
angela@freedomtomarry.org
646-430-3925

Freedom to Marry Pushes for Marriage in Maine

Today, Maine supporters of the freedom to marry will deliver more than 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of State putting forward a ballot measure that, if passed by voters in November, would end same-sex couples' exclusion from marriage. Below is a statement from Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry:

WASHINGTON

Today, Maine supporters of the freedom to marry will deliver more than 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of State putting forward a ballot measure that, if passed by voters in November, would end same-sex couples' exclusion from marriage. Below is a statement from Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry:

"Over the past few years, marriage supporters have knocked on doors, chatted around kitchen tables and in church basements, and talked with their neighbors about their lives, loved ones, and kin, and why marriage matters. Mainers have seen that same-sex couples and their families, like all other families, are working their hardest to take care of their families in tough economic times, sharing in life's joys and challenges, and doing the work of marriage day to day. That's why a solid majority of Mainers have opened their hearts and made up their minds in support of the freedom to marry. And while a minority should never have to ask the majority to vote on whether all of us should have the same freedoms under the law, because of how the law and politics work in Maine, this is the only path forward for couples seeking to share in the legal commitment of marriage."

Since the marriage law passed by the legislature was overturned at the polls in November 2009, Freedom to Marry has worked closely with Equality Maine and GLAD to build support for ending exclusion from marriage. Over that period, support has risen from approximately 48 percent to 54 percent today. Freedom to Marry will serve as a member of the executive committee of the ballot campaign and will provide strategic support as well as resources to the effort.

Maine has a history of taking several rounds to secure civil rights protections. A non-discrimination law went through the legislature and then to the voters three times before finally being sustained.

Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement.