I’ve followed Maine’s contentious political battle over Question 1 but did not feel that it was my place to enter it. But a letter I co-wrote, urging the governor and Legislature to include specific religious liberty protections in Maine’s same-sex marriage law, has become a centerpiece in the debate about repealing same-sex marriage. ...

Let me be clear, however, it is possible to recognize same-sex marriage without treading on religious liberty. One right need not come at the expense of the other. But this requires careful crafting of protections for conscientious objectors.

I and others urged the governor and Legislature to enact a concrete, legislative solution that avoids the otherwise inevitable conflicts between same-sex marriage laws and religious freedom. The narrow exemption we proposed would clarify that people and organizations may refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings if doing so would violate deeply held beliefs, provided the refusal creates no hardship for the couple seeking the service. ...

The kind of careful, robust, religious protections that we urged the governor and Legislature to include in Maine’s new law are part of the law in Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire. These states protect religious organizations from suit under the state’s anti-discrimination statutes and provide protection from exclusion from certain government programs. While these laws didn’t address every important religious liberty issue, they tackled far more than Maine.

Labels: gay marriage, Maine, religious liberty, Robin F. Wilson

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