Breathe For Love

Against my better judgement, I'm going to post this.

First off, I want to say that I understand this is a touchy topic – I know some people may not agree with me on this issue – and I generally stay far, FAR away from talking politics, especially on the Internet...

But tonight is potentially a HUGE night for Maine (where I live).

As some people might have noticed, ‘Maine’ and ‘#VoteNoOn1” have been Trending Topics on Twitter for a majority of the day. I believe ‘Maine’ is currently a TT again right now (as of the time this journal was posted).

This is why…

In May 2009, a law was passed and signed by Gov. John Baldacci saying that same-sex marriage would be allowed in Maine. Of course, some people were upset by this and now the issue made it to the ballot for today's election.

The question on the ballot was "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

"No" means you want to allow same-sex couples to be married; "Yes" means you want to repeal the law and refuse the right.

The polls closed at 8:00 PM (EST) and, from what I understand, there were still a few people in line to vote for at least an hour after the polls closed. Apparently there was a much larger voter turnout than expected and they ran out of ballots in some areas and had to use photocopied ones, haha.

Originally, the estimated results were 51% for ‘No’ and 49% for ‘Yes’, meaning that the law would stay in place and same-sex couples would be allowed to marry, but with all the unexpected voters, I really don’t know which side will end up having it.

As of 9:54 PM (EST) The votes are No: 50.62% and Yes: 49.38% but at this point only 22% of precincts have reported, so it’s anyone’s game. It's definitely going to be a close one. I am curious to see if Maine will end up breaking ground with the same-sex marriage debate.

Same-sex marriage has always been the one political thing I've ever really talked about publicly and have a really strong opinion about. 

Honestly, It’s kind of ridiculous to me that this even has to be voted on. We’re all people; we all deserve the same rights. 

Love is love. You can’t help who you fall in love with, and you shouldn’t have to be told whether or not you are allowed to marry them or not.

Edit: With 87% of precincts reporting, the gay marriage law has been overturned in Maine with a 53% to 47% vote. The 'Yes on 1' campaign claimed victory last night a little after 12:30AM (EST) 

I'm sad to see that 53% of my state isn't as open-minded as I had hoped. Although, the fact that the vote was so close gives me hope that someday soon things will change for the better and people will no longer be denied their basic civil liberties.