Lending a hand in Maine

Long before I met the sleepyhead who's now my wife, her college pal Stacy McDaniel would arrive unannounced on her doorstep every Sunday morning. Armed with a loaf of bread and an irresistible laugh, he would jolly Joyce into driving with him to a nearby lake.

Together, they would feed the ducks of Athens, Ga.

Despite her many fine qualities, Joyce would have never laid eyes on those ducks if Stacy hadn't been determined to get her up and out. Good intentions weren't enough — she needed a friendly nudge.

That's exactly what Stacy now intends to give Maine's progressive voters. Stacy and 1,000 other volunteers, most from in state, have set their hearts on getting those voters up, out and to the ballot box — or mailbox for early voters — to defeat the anti-gay measure known as Question 1. (For more information, see protectmaineequality.org.)

Earlier this year, Maine's legislature voted to open marriage to gay couples. Gov. John Baldacci signed the wonderful measure into law. But it won't take effect unless Question 1 is defeated.

The polling in Maine is encouraging. There's a problem, though: Elections tend to be sleepy affairs if the White House isn't up for grabs. And — despite their best intentions — gay-friendly voters all too often just never get around to casting ballots in off-year elections.

And that's why it's terrific that the "No on 1 Campaign" is reaching out to people like Stacy.

Even though he's built like a lumberjack, Stacy had never been to Maine, never left Georgia to push for gay rights.

But he'd been deeply touched by the Connecticut wedding of his friends John and Andrew. ("How different my life would have been if, as a teen, I had known that gay marriage would have been a possibility for me," Stacy told me. "All the pain and angst and turmoil and therapy I went through ...") And he'd been deeply offended last November when California voters halted their state's same-sex marriages.

So when he got an email asking him to "vacation in Maine and volunteer for a week," he leaped at the opportunity and gave it a bear hug.

Suddenly, though, he was hit with a $1,250 repair bill. Atlanta's torrential rains had broken pipes in his lawn. A friend sighed, "Well, there goes the 'No on 1' trip to Maine!" Stacy just laughed, "No, there goes my home equity!"

A lovable special ed teacher who retired early, Stacy isn't likely to strike anybody in Maine as an outside agitator. Call him an outside educator — someone patient enough to teach very slow learners how to open a tube of toothpaste; someone ready to coax allies — "make sure to vote" — as many times as it takes.

I love thinking of Stacy's getting a taste of Maine. ("I've been told to be on the lookout for something called a lobster roll. I've never had a whole lobster, either. I'm hoping some handsome Maine guy will show me the ropes — lobster-wise.")

But, mostly, I love that waves of volunteers are knocking on Maine doors to remind voters that, as Stacy puts it, "gay marriage changes nothing in their lives — unless they happen to be gay."

I'm hopeful Maine's voters will be the first to embrace marriage equality at the ballot box. Gay marriage is nothing new in that neck of the woods. Neighboring Canada welcomed it 2003 and has been joined by the New England states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and (starting in January) New Hampshire.

Gay marriage can win in Maine. But cheerfully persistent volunteers like Stacy McDaniel need to keep nudging supporters until they've all followed through on their good intentions by voting. This isn't an election to sleep through.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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