Mormon Church Using NOM as a Front to Fight Gay Marriage in Maine?

As they were in last year’s Proposition 8 campaign that banned marriage for same-sex couples in California, two prominent religious denominations appear to be playing crucial roles in the current effort to repeal the Maine marriage law. The stakes are high. According to a poll conducted in April while lawmakers in Augusta debated the bill, voters were evenly divided on the issue: 49.5 percent said they opposed legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians, 47.3 percent said they supported it and 3.3 percent said they didn’t know. The Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Stand for Marriage Maine, the organization that has submitted more than 100,000 petition signatures. This figure is almost twice the number needed to place a referendum before voters in November that would ask them to repeal the bill lawmakers passed and Gov. John Baldacci signed into law on May 6. Maine is the fourth New England state to extend marriage to same-sex couples. New Hampshire followed suit a few weeks later, while Rhode Island remains the only state in the region that has not. Full Story from Edge Boston

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