EqualityMaine was first known as the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance (MLGPA). The group was founded in response to the July 1984 murder of Charlie Howard, a young Bangor man who was attacked and murdered simply because he was gay. There was another catalyst that summer: Dale McCormick, a longtime champion of equal rights, was among those chosen to represent Maine at the 1984 Democratic Nation
al Convention in San Francisco. Upon her return, McCormick and other openly gay Mainers realized it was time to come together and build political power for the state's LGBT community through advocacy, education and lobbying. MLGPA began with an ambitious desire for full equality, but as a practical matter, it had a humble start. A band of volunteers went to work with $147 that they'd raised by setting up a table at a local autumn festival. MLGPA's founding documents were handwritten in a spiral notebook, along with a to-do list of "Nitty-Gritties: checking account, P.O. In the mid-1980s Maine -- like many other states -- was just starting to engage in new conversations about fairness and equality. Should the state improve access to public facilities for disabled and handicapped citizens? Should women in the state government receive pay equal to their male colleagues? For two decades MLGPA worked to build support for legislation that would protect LGBT Mainers from discrimination, and to include attacks on LGBT citizens under the state's definition of hate crimes. The latter goal was achieved with an amendment to the Maine Civil Rights Act in 1993, nearly 10 years after Charlie Howard's death. Click here to see more from the MLGPA/EqualityMaine archives. The enactment of Maine's non-discrimination law in 2005 was the culmination of efforts by MLGPA, its coalition partners, fair-minded legislators and thousands of volunteers who contributed time, energy and resources to the campaign. Years of hard work paid off when, in an overwhelming majority, Maine voters struck down a referendum that sought to overturn the 2005 non-dicrimination bill. Maine became the last New England state to protect its LGBT citizens from discrimination in employment, credit, housing, public accommodations and education...
So what lies ahead? We don't have a crystal ball, but we know one thing for certain: a conversation about marriage equality has begun in America, and we are eager to bring that conversation to life here in Maine. Already, four of the six New England states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire) have decided that it’s unfair and wrong to block same-sex couples from the protections and responsibilities that only civil marriage can convey. There are those who say marriage equality is an impossible dream. Twenty-five... 20... even 10 years ago, MLGPA's members were told, time and time again, that non-discrimination legislation was beyond their reach. In 1984, who could have envisioned a Maine in which comprehensive non-discrimination legislation was law; the state's Family Medical Leave Act covered same-sex partners; and same-sex couples could jointly adopt? We could. Our members could. That's why we kept working, and that's why we won. We've come a long way since we began. And we'll keep going until LGBT citizens have full equality in the hearts and minds of Maine people, and in all areas of the law.
