A lobby for homosexuals and transgenders in Maine has announced plans to shadow individuals who will be working to collect signatures on the "YES for Marriage and Equality" pro-family referendum, which is intended to put a marriage protection plan on the 2009 election ballot.
In a report in the New England Blade this week, Betsy Smith, executive director of the Equality Maine activist organization, outlined "a plan that asks volunteers to stand with the people the [Christian Civic] League recruits to collect signatures for the petition."
"I think it is disgusting that so-called 'gay' groups plan on harassing dear Christian grandmothers who simply want to gather signatures on Primary Election Day. Shame on Equality Maine," said Michael Heath, chief of the CCL.
"They need to call off this totalitarian campaign of intimidation and apologize. Yesterday wouldn't be soon enough," he said in a statement today. 
The Equality report said, "this way … signers will not misinterpret the petition's purpose and understand before they sign that the so-caled (sic) 'equality' the League wants is really equality for straight couples, not equality for all."
A report from CCL said, "Smith went on to state the Equality Maine petition blockers 'will offer a pledge for [homosexual and transgendered] equality, so that people who are opposed to [the pro-family referendum] can take action that day.'"
The Blade report was harshly critical of the pro-family plan to define marriage and provide that it is a union of one man and one woman, as well as eliminate the requirement that taxpayers fund homosexual clubs in public schools.
Equality officials reported they had been working to change the language of the proposal, and the language approved by the secretary of state "explains to voters much more clearly what this referendum would do," according to Smith.
The title now defines the plan as "An Act to Protect Marriage and Promote Equality." If about 55,000 signatures are collected, the issue will be on the 2009 ballot in the state.
"There is a belief in Maine that people have the right to vote on things," reported Smith. "That's why we're not running a decline-to-sign campaign."
The homosexual advocacy organization also is organizing a campaign to write letters to newspaper editors criticizing the plan.
According to CCL, "The Blade article concluded with the news that Maine Gov. John Baldacci has officially sided against the YES for Marriage and Equality effort. According the article: 'Baldacci's office told the [New England] Blade that the governor would 'work diligently' for the [pro-family] effort's defeat.'"
The CCL said what should be revealed is that the activist organization simply wants marriage rights.
Just days earlier, WND reported on a seminar that essentially was to provide information to impressionable school-age boys on how to be homosexual that was canceled after the CCL asked to attend.
The decision also followed WND's report on the developing situation.
The seminar was called "Queer, Questioning, Quiet: Developing Gender & Male Sexual Orientation" had been promoted by the Boys to Men organization in Portland, Maine, as a feature of its recent conference.
The Boys to Men website advertisement explained the outreach was "targeted primarily to middle and high school boys and their adult male mentors." Speakers were to include officials from the Maine SpeakOut Project and other homosexual advocacy groups.
But according to a report in the Christian Civic League Record, the event was dropped and supporters gave two explanations for having it cancelled.
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