In the past several years, bills to allow same-sex marriage have caused numerous controversies as they have been disputed, vetoed and reversed.
Thursday night, The Elon Center for the Study of Religion hosted North Carolina’s first screening of “Question One,” a documentary about the 2009 referendum vote that caused Maine to reverse its move to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.
The documentary, made by Joe Fox and James Nubile, details the battles fought by the “Yes on One” and “No on One” campaigns, groups fighting to vote to reverse and uphold the law respectively. Although polling in the weeks leading up to the vote strongly suggested Maine would vote in favor of keeping the legislation, the final vote was close, 53 percent to 47 percent.
The Yes on One campaign was largely headed by a group of Catholics, who tried to appeal to parents’ potential fears that gay culture would be required to be taught in schools. The No on One campaign also had many Christian volunteers, fighting on the grounds of protecting all Maine families and pursuing equality for all.
Marvin Ellison, a Christian ethicist from Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, led a discussion about gay marriage following the documentary. There are many similarities between Maine’s fight for marriage equality and North Carolina’s Amendment One battle, he said, and gay rights activists can learn from Question One to better fight for their cause.
“I do believe marriage equality will be the future of this country,” Ellison said. “But we have to educate each other and do the hard work of explaining why that’s the right thing to do. Especially, I think, to people of faith.”