Looking beyond couples at impact of marriage equality in Maine

The Bangor Daily News, Maine’s second largest newspaper, recently launched a blog to share the “stories and voices behind the editorial page.”  The first post gets at a key issue in the push for marriage equality in Maine: real family values.  Our opponents never seem to acknowledge the children of gay couples when they mislead and distort to claim they want to “protect” children. 

From Erin Rhoda, the editorial page editor (and, incidentally, a friend from high school):

…To talk to Ray and Rodney is to understand on a personal level how laws surrounding gay rights affect not just same-sex couples but their families. Ray and Rodney want to marry in Maine so their relationship can be recognized for their son’s sake — so he can have that sense of affirmation.

“For us the strong motivating factor is to help him,” Rodney said. They want Ethan, now age 12, to one day be the best man at their wedding.

Their story also illuminates the positive direction of legal changes so far. Ray and Rodney have seen the adoption law altered to work in their favor. And even though Mainers voted in 2009 to overturn a law legalizing same-sex marriage, Ray said he knows change comes incrementally. The couple has seen opinion — within their family and the general public — turn in support…

...Children of gay couples across Maine deserve to see their parents treated equally. It’s preposterous that it’s legal for a gay couple to adopt but not marry.

You can read Ray and Rodney’s full story on the Arguably blog.