Maine: The Way Life Should Be

AP

OUR STATE motto. And it had a deep resonance today when, shortly after noon, Governor John Elias Baldacci became the first governor in the nation's history to sign a marriage equality bill into law. LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom, now bears the signature of an Italian Catholic state executive.

The Maine event.

I've had goosebumps most of the day.

Maine, the way life should be.

When I first moved here, people asked me why I would do such a thing. For many in the nation, Maine is akin to Siberia.

Well, in this, the whitest state in the union, Portland, our largest city, boasts a Black woman mayor and a chief of police who's a Black man.

Go figure.

I live in a rather conservative small town near the capitol in Augusta, so I get to scoot down Route 202 to the State House anytime I want to lobby or witness our legislative process up close and personal.

I'm blessed -- brilliantly blessed -- to have lived long enough to see the election of our nation's first Black president, and to live on a farm in my dream home in a place where the vows I shared with my beloved husband almost 11 years ago will now be recognized by my state.

The vows I shared nearly 11 years ago. Tempus fugit. These weren't the vows we exchanged, but here is our Declaration of Lifelong Commitment, signed by our family and friends:

WHEREAS we are of sound mind, body and spirit; and
WHEREAS we have been living and loving together for nearly two years; and
WHEREAS we have made, in the presence of our families, friends, ancestors and all that is holy, a public pronouncement of our intent to enter this union, we

Jacobus Dirk Blom & Craig Von Hickman

the undersigned, on this 22nd day of August 1998, as witnessed by those closest to us,

PROMISE to have and to hold each other, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, in prosperity and in destitution, all the days of our lives on this earth. We further

PROMISE to recognize this union as sacred and unbreakable and will, in times of trouble or weakness, turn to God and to all those who have witnessed this declaration to support us on our lifelong journey together

And no, I don't fear the overturning of this legislation by the people's veto process via referendum come November or next June. Let the Catholic Church spearhead the effort to obtain the 60,000 or so signatures that need to be certified to send the issue to the ballot box.

It. Will. Fail.

Of this, I am certain.

The way life should be.

As goes Maine, so goes the nation.

From Andrew Sullivan:

So I sit here and toast with a small cappuccino and some petite vanilla bean scones like the big proud fag I am. A few years ago, this would have been front page news. Now it feels like history repeating. And justice slowly seeping up like a rising water table that becomes a mighty and joyous flood.

It's a new day.

Welcome.

(UPDATE: I found a clip of my brief interview after the house vote yesterday here.)