Maine Dept. of Education refutes claims made by Robin Wirthlin

by: Gerald Weinand

Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 13:40:54 PM EDT

This video was also used by opponents of equal marriage in California.

In it, Robin Wirthlin says:

Lexington Public Schools has come out with a new curriculum where they will teach about homosexuality and gay marriage in every topic: in math, in reading, in social studies, in spelling. There will be terms and concepts of homosexuality promoted in every subject, at every level - from Kindergarten on up.

Parents will have no right to object, and schools will roll this forth whether they like it or not.

I contacted the Maine Department of Education for a comment regarding this, and Communications Director David Connerty-Marin, sent this reply:

I cannot comment on Massachusetts education law or decisions made by local school districts in Massachusetts. Here in Maine, our Learning Results standards and education regulations make no reference to the teaching of marriage in any way. So a change in Maine's laws or definition of marriage places no requirements on local districts regarding whether or how they teach about marriage. Such curriculum decisions are strictly local. Before or after passage of the gay marriage law a district could choose to teach about marriage or not, and to teach about it in any way it deemed appropriate. It simply is not governed by state education law.

Connerty-Marin goes on to add, "The ad is entirely misleading."

Indeed.

New Study Proves this Ad Works - Watch it here and support Equality in Maine and California

by: truthandhope

Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 16:07:27 PM EDT

Frank Schubert is the President of Schubert Flint Public Affairs: the firm which ran the Yes on 8 campaign in California in 2008. Frank has claimed that his firm won in California "because we created superior advertising that defined the issues on our terms."  Now Frank is in Maine leading the Yes on Prop 1 campaign and once again using the same formula of fear based attacks to deny equality in marriage.

We believe that our media strategy while being simple, is just the right formula to beat back the fear that Frank and his team would use to deny equality for Maine, as they did in California: refuse to debate the rhetoric of fear, instead choosing to frame the issue of equality in truth.

HCD Research conducted a study of this TruthandHope.Org commercial, using its Mediacurves website which revealed that Republican and Independent voters may be moved by advertising to support marriage equality.

Four days ago Markos revealed the results of his poll which essentially showed Frank Schubert with a small lead at best or a statistical dead heat. We believe this ad can help uphold equality in Maine:

There's more:

Swiftboating Same-Sex Marriage in Maine

by: Gerald Weinand

Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 22:54:05 PM EDT

The Religious Right is Swiftboating Same Sex Marriage in Maine

By Karen Ocamb

News editor, Frontiers in LA

"God has no grandchildren," the evangelical ex-Marine father of my late friend Chip Howe said, explaining how he surrendered judgment and came to accept Chip's homosexuality.  Chip, a Lieutenant in the Navy during the Vietnam War, was supposed to get married and provide his parents with grandchildren. Chip's father thought being gay meant that would never happen.

That was in 1990, before there was any real hope for marriage rights for same sex couples.  Though Chip had known love before he died, he never got to experience the fruition of his constitutional right to pursue happiness - marriage and a family of his own.

The story is instructive because Religious Right professionals have succeeded in making it appear as if all people of faith are antigay and anti-marriage equality. Worse yet, they are using religion as an excuse to perpetrate lies and deception - to swiftboat same sex couples in the name of God, when in fact they are just advancing another end-justifies-the-means political scheme.

That's what happened in California and that's what is now underway in Maine as opponents of same sex marriage fight to prevent Maine's marriage equality law from taking effect though a referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot.

State Sen. Larry Bliss (D-South Portland) got to the heart of the issue in his Sept. 28 op-ed response to Rev. Bob Emrich's Aug. 26 Maine Voices column advocating passage of the anti-gay Question 1.

Bliss wrote:

"Do we want a Maine where Rev. Emrich and his supporters tell the rest of us who can be a family and who can love whom?

Marriage equality upholds traditional Maine values of personal freedom and equality by respecting the right of every Mainer to marry the person he or she loves.

That's the Maine I live in. Those are the values I hold dear."

There's more: