Maine Speaks: Freedom to Marry? No! Freedom to Smoke Pot? Hell, Yeah!
posted 5th November 2009 in Moral Values, Politics, Sex and Gender, State and Local by Jim
Got the munchies? Munch on these results from two 2009 ballot question votes in the state of Maine. One ballot question took away the marriage rights of gay and lesbian people, and the other ballot question granted the right of sick people to smoke marijuana as medicine.
In Androscoggin County, 60% of voters decided to repeal the freedom of gay and lesbian couples to get married. In the same county, 58% of voters decided to give people the freedom to smoke pot.
In Franklin County, 59% of voters took away the right of same-sex couples to get married, but 59% of voters decided to protect the right to take hits of weed.
In Kennebec County, 57% of voters voted away equal protection under law for same-sex Mainers. 54% voted in equal access to medical marijuana.
In Lincoln County, 52% outlawed marriage and 62% legalized bong hits.
In Oxford County, 59% voted against same-sex marriage freedoms but 59% voted for same-day drug freedoms.
In Penobscot County, 59% cast ballots that cast gay and lesbian Mainers onto a lower level of personhood, while 51% cast ballots legalizing intoxicants to cast themselves onto a higher level of astral consciousness.
Sagadahoc County: 51% against marriage freedom, 62% for marijuana freedom.
Waldo County: 54% against letting people make a higher commitment to one another, 56% for the freedom to get high.
Washington County: 65% against marrying Jane, 51% for Mary Jane.
In these communities, Mainers have made their priorities clear: by all means, they want the right to light up a joint. But let some queers get married? Hell, no!
Freedom for me but not for thee: that’s the theme of the Maine vote of 2009.
Tags: counties, drugs, freedom, gay, lesbian, Liberty, maine, marijuana, marriage, marriage equality, pot, same sex, selfish, voting
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Like I said before….it’s a gut instinct thing…..
Legislation by gut instinct is a really bad idea.
Human beings are (supposedly) intelligent beings. As intelligent beings you would think more of them would actually, you know, USE their intellect to separate fact from “gut instinct” when it comes to something that has such a large impact on so many.
Gosh Tim, guess you better hope nobody has a “gut instinct” to make YOU a second-class citizen.
Maybe I missed something, but I always thought it was also a more right wing value to force people into criminality if they wanted to take recreational drugs other than alcohol or cigarettes?
I’ve certainly heard drinkers/smokers say that people who take illegal drugs obviously don’t care about their lives, and they’ve always been right-wing.
This doesn’t imply to me that the pro-drugs lot are anti-gay, just that a significant number of people are around the left-right neutral zone.
Fact that people are more likely to support rights they want to use is noted.
I think what you’re seeing is that politics in Maine (as with politics in some places in the Mountain West of America) does not only operate on one left wing – right wing axis. There’s also a libertarian strain in Maine — let me live my life the way I want — that can be found in Republicans and Democrats and Greens and Independents. But I think this vote has highlighted that the “let me live my life the way I want” is very literally “let me live MY life the way *I* want.” The principle doesn’t seem to extend to other people.
first of all, are you saying medical marijuana passed in maine? if so, congratulaions!
second point; if you are saying marijuana smokers are anti-gay, i would take exception to that. at least no more than any other segment of the population. in my experience that would be less, way less. pot smokers are laid back and let others alone. i don’t see pot smokers joining any hate groups. they won’t even join up to protest the laws that keep putting them in jail.
third point; if you are trying to use those polling numbers to make your claim, i would say that’s a very thin arguement. it looks like about 60/40 at best for the lead in both cases. right? my arguement would be that the 40% who voted against medical marijuana are part of the 60% that voted to ban gay marriage.
fourth and finally; gay people need medical marijauna too!
My point is simple: that if all those who voted to legalize medical marijuana in the state of Maine had voted to keep same-sex marriage legal in Maine, the NO on 1 side would have won by a landslide.
Freedom for me to smoke a joint? Oh, yeah. Freedom for thee to get married? Hell, no!
if all those who voted to legalize…
the problem is the votes overlap, i’m guessing you already had the majority of the med/pot crowd. the 40% that voted to save gay marriage are part of the 60% that want the right to pain relief [ among other things, like not being thrown in jail].
you talk like pot smokers are all me,me,me…
people are in prisons, people are in jails, people are under illegal surveillance, people are being beheaded… because of the prohibtion of marijuana.
i know gay people want to be married. but, you really stretch the point.
What I’m saying is true, regardless of whether you think it’s stretching the point or not.
I’m not saying that medical marijuana shouldn’t be legal. I’m not saying the drug war and its many violations of human dignity are right. I’m noting with interest that interest in freedom for pot smokers doesn’t transfer to interest in freedom for gay and lesbian Mainers. It doesn’t. It didn’t here in Maine; if it had, we would have seen a different ballot question outcome.
Beyond this particular discussion, I’m troubled by so many Americans’ lack of compassion, their difficulty in rousing concern for the problems and issues of others. Straight people should care more about the inequalities endured by gay people. Gay people should care more about pot smokers getting thrown in jail for long prison sentences. Pot smokers should care more about people being put on watch lists and under warrantless surveillance because of their religion. I think a lot of the problems in America can be traced back to so many Americans’ willingness to ignore injustice so long as the injustice is being perpetrated upon somebody else.
i’m saying it does tranfer, just not in the numbers you want. if we could get the other 20% swayed in any of these decisions the point would be moot. this goes back to “TCM…tim”’s comment about “most folks” and changing their minds. it takes time and teaching, more so with gay rights, i’m sorry to say. with medical marijuana there is a buck to be made. that changes minds a little faster.
and don’t even attempt to change god’s mind. he’s been latent homo erotic for so long every time he sucks a straw he envisions johnny the wad holmes.
it’s humor! jacob! humor!
jim, you really should be kinder to jacob. a lamb has to follow it’s shepard. hopefully to the shears and not the slaughter.
Well, yep, I’m in agreement with you, except for the “kind” part. I certainly admit that I’m impolite and discourteous at times; it’s one of my personal difficulties that I have a loose social appropriateness sphincter. But I feel a) it’s kinder to support someone’s rights than to smile and pretend to agree with their declarations, and b) Jacob’s a human being with an upright spine, not a lamb with a woolly coat. Whether he wants to continue to pretend to be a lamb is up to him.
I dont see Jim as unkind.. Just very transpatently honest
should read transparently. Nothing is hidden
i am glad to see jacob following the “turn the other cheek” approach. jesus approves, i would imagine.
how about the homophobic jokes? can you forgive me?
i do have a perverse sense of humor. do you see it standing in my way at the pearly gates? i bare no ill will, some things just strike me as funny. like the guy who rescued a bull-dog from the local shelter only to have the animal tear off his face(true story), some things are just too ironic.
in truth gay has no true love it is pure evil lust it has no place in the eyes of humans if you beleave it is right to join do it in common laws. do not anger the god who made all things to the gays get a brain dont think with your lust. keep two yoursalfs and leave the holy people alone are …… what gos around will come around. not gay in truth is evil lust face it…
What about spelling and capitalization? Do they also have no place in the eyes of humans?
I noticed that they had no mention of Hancock County, where we had a higher percentage of NO on 1! that’s right.