I'm stunned that Maine has turned out to be not a place where people live and let live but somewhere that people sit in judgment on others' relationships. For all my sadness about this outcome, however, I am still just a straight person stewing in my own privilege to love and marry the person I wanted to, to have children with him without fear of having them taken from one of us, to be at his side in a time of need (or have him at mine) with no questions asked. The best I can ever hope is to be a good ally, and I can't speak for anyone other than myself.
For some thoughts from someone personally affected by the small-mindedness of others, I want to offer the "blessing" that Jack, a longtime friend of Chip's who has also become my friend, posted on Facebook. I have reposted it here with his permission.
A Word to Opponents of Gay Marriage
May you all be blessed to know and love a gay person, perhaps a sibling, a cousin, or child of yours.
May you all be blessed to have the strength of character to admit that your votes have harmed a person you love, and beg that person's forgiveness.
May you be blessed to receive that forgiveness.
May you be blessed to work to change your world for the better when your eyes have finally opened.
Jack did a reading at our wedding 11 years ago, and he and his husband, Johnathan, both sang at that celebration. They were married last year just before California voters approved Proposition 8, leaving them in a bizarre legal limbo. They have been together as a couple for almost the exact same amount of time that Chip and I have. It is unbelievable to me that "majority rules" can be applied to the civil rights of the two of them and of other couples like them.
Shame on Maine. I can only hope that in the not-so-distant future, people will look back at this chapter of our history as we do at the anti-miscegenation laws of the past--with contempt and disbelief.
Edited to add, quoting Melissa McEwan at Comment is Free:
John Rogers once noted that "when the Supreme Court struck down the bans against interracial marriage in [1967] through [Loving v. Virginia], 72% of Americans were against interracial marriage. As a matter of fact, approval of interracial marriage in the US didn't cross the positive threshold until – sweet God – 1991".
That's exactly 30 years after our current president was born to an interracial couple.