Maine has overturned legal same sex marriages. So as it stands right now in the U.S., it is legal in Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont, and Massachusetts, no longer legal in Maine(sharing that with California, where they were performed and legal for a few months last year), and about to become legal on the first of the year in New Hampshire. Interestingly enough, it is the northeast and the Midwest that are the most progressive on this issue. 30 other states have voted down measures to legalize same sex marriage. No same sex marriages are federally recognized.

So why is Maine changing its mind now? And what’s the history of same sex marriage in Maine?
The Maine legislature actually passed a bill last May making same sex marriage illegal once more, but enough signatures were gathered throughout the state to declare a “people’s veto,” requiring the bill to go to a popular vote.

The popular vote came back at 52%+ outlawing same sex marriage.

According to Jeff Flint, a Schubert Flint Public Affairs worker in Sacramento who worked on California’s own Yes on 8 campaign, the vote is, "further evidence that although voters have shown tolerance toward same sex couples, they draw the line at marriage. They feel marriage is different."
Is that the case? Can America be deemed “tolerant” of same sex couples but not of same sex marriage? And if so, where does that come from? Is it a simple puritan notion that you mind your own business and let people do what they will unless it comes to the sacred, such as with marriage?

It is interesting to put the issue of same sex marriage up against the separation of church and state. Was there a legal basis, before the drive to create laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman, to support such definition? Is there any reason to define marriage as man and woman outside of religious rationalization? I think not. And if marriage is a union recognized by the state…
Of course this kind of thinking and argument is past its day in the sun (at least its most recent one) as the definition has, in fact, been legally created that marriage is between a man and a woman. Arguing whether it should or shouldn’t be legal at this point is a matter of opinion- unfortunately for same sex couples, their opinion happens to be illegal in the vast majority of the United Sates.

So what does it mean? In one sense, it is a setback. Another state declaring that same sex marriage is illegal, and the second state to take back its legality. But it may be a catalyst for renewed action by same sex marriage advocates.

John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish in L.A., believes the vote will do just that: "It will light a fire under activists and be a reminder that we all had our right to marry taken away in California.”

Perhaps we will see another movement to return the legal right for same sex couples to marry here in California. That would be the only silver lining in a decision like this.