A clean sweep.

Can the success of gay rights legislation in New

England be repeated elsewhere?

When the history of gay rights legislation

in the 1990s is written, it may be

remembered as the era of New England.

Beginning with Massachusetts's

passage of legislation in 1989

banning antigay

discrimination and ending

when Maine and New

Hampshire adopted

similar measures this

spring, all six New

England states have

approved some form of

statewide legal protection

for their gay and

lesbian residents. The clean sweep of the

region left activists searching for ways to

apply its lessons to other states.

"The idea that what you do on your

little piece of God's green earth is up to

you and you alone is alive and well in

New England," says Sue Hyde, the New

England field organizer for the National

Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a political

group. "Not everyone embraces

homosexuality, but they are willing to

allow others to conduct their lives as

they see fit. We can now say to the rest

of the country, `See, none of the dire

results predicted by conservatives for

gay rights have come to pass.'"

Yet the unique political circumstances

of New England are unlikely

to be replicated elsewhere anytime

soon. In addition to historical support

for civil rights, Maine and New

Hampshire have sympathetic governors,

the willingness of Catholic Church

leaders to remain neutral, weakness and

infighting among antigay groups, and

well-organized gay lobbying groups.

In New Hampshire, Gov. Jeanne

Shaheen signed the measure into law on

June 7, three weeks after Maine governor

Angus King signed his

state's legislation. In adopting

the antidiscrimination laws, Maine

and New Hampshire joined their fellow

New England states of Connecticut,

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and

Vermont. Only five other states in the

nation--California, Hawaii, Minnesota,

New Jersey, and Wisconsin--have laws

on the books prohibiting antigay

discrimination. The District of Columbia 

passed a gay rights measure in 1977.

New Hampshire and Maine took

similar paths to the legislation. In New

Hampshire support for the bill was

bolstered by Bishop Leo O'Neil of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of

Manchester. O'Neil agreed to

drop his opposition in

return for the insertion of

language declaring that the

state "does not intend to

promote or endorse any

sexual lifestyle other than

the traditional,

marriage-based family."

"I've yelled at the

legislators for accepting the amendment

and making gays and lesbians

second-class citizens," says Susannah

Colt, a veteran gay activist who testified

in March at a hearing on the bill in the

New Hampshire house of

representatives. "But that seemed to

be the only way to get the bill through

this time. We can work to remove it in

the future when people realize that as

productive citizens we shouldn't be

treated differently from any other

minority."

John Camobreco, assistant professor

of political science at the University of

New Hampshire, says subtle

demographic shifts played directly into

activists' hands. "There is a migration of

people to the southern part of the state,

where the high-tech industry is situated,

who are more politically moderate than

the traditionally conservative hotbed in

the north," he says. "But even in the

north voters tend to be fiscally

conservative and libertarian rather than

socially conservative and antigay. In

between Massachusetts and Vermont,

New Hampshire might seem

conservative. But if you put it in middle

of the deep South, it would seem

moderate. The state just doesn't have the

organized social-conservative movement

that other states have."

In Maine the Catholic Church also

agreed to remain neutral, in part because

King had already allowed a bill

prohibiting same-sex marriage to become

law without his signature.

"When the marriage bill passed, the

church had some sense that they were

being listened to on a moral issue that's

very important to them," says Pat Peard,

head of the gay group Maine Won't

Discriminate. "That made it easier for

them to support a ban on discrimination,

which for them lacks the moral

connotation of marriage."

The bill benefited from a bruising 

battle over an unsuccessful 1995 antigay

ballot measure that would have

prohibited the state from adopting

antidiscrimination legislation on the basis

of sexual orientation. "That effort

boomeranged on the antigay forces by

leaving mainstream voters suspicious

about their motives," says Bill Nemitz, a

columnist at the Portland Press Herald. "A

lot of voters were educated about who

gay people are. The fight over that

initiative alienated so many people that it

fractured any sense of coalition the right

wing might have had going into this fight."

In Maine, at least, the issue may not

be settled yet. The local chapter of the

Christian Coalition, a right-wing religious

group, is toying with the idea of

mounting another ballot

measure, this time to overturn the

antidiscrimination law. According to a unique

"people's veto" provision in the Maine

state constitution, opponents of any law

passed by the legislature have 90 days to

gather 10% of voters' signatures after the

legislature's adjournment to spark a

referendum. "This could be the most

contentious battle yet," says Nemitz,

"because the coalition is talking about

waging a battle against sin, not just equal

rights."

Hyde says the most important lesson

from Maine and New Hampshire, as in

the four other New England states that

have already enacted bans on antigay

bias, is that there is no substitute for

experience. "In Maine people have been

working on some form of gay rights

legislation for 20 years now," she says.

"In New Hampshire the bill was

introduced only in 1993, but they have

been working with the legislature for at

least a decade. The gay rights battle is

fundamentally about people working to

create an atmosphere in which legislation

is possible. People have to be willing to

chop wood and carry water for years and

years before they get their reward."

RELATED ARTICLE: Solid states

Within the past eight years, every state in

New England has passed laws protecting gay

men and lesbians from discrimination. Such

measures have also been written into law in

California, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey,

Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.