Maine's Lebanese-American Governor Signs Gay Marriage Bill

Maybe Lebanon's motley collection of sectarian communities aren't too proud of their semi-native son (one generation removed), but I, as an ex-Lebanese, certainly am: Maine Governor John Elias Baldacci, the son of an Italian father (from Lucca) and Lebanese mother, and the product of Maine's most gastronomically Democratic family, today became the first governor in American history to sign a gay-marriage bill into law without being prodded by a court.

Baldacci, one of eight children, most of them in politics, grew up in his parents' Bangor restaurant, Momma Baldacci's, which became a required stop for politicians courting Maine's voters. Robert Baldacci, the patriarch of the family (he died in 1993) was a multi-term city councilman who counted George Mitchell, the former Senate Majority leader, among his friends and frequent diners at Momma Baldacci. Mitchell, who's also of Lebanese descent, these days is Barack Obama's special Middle East envoy.

In 1992, when presidential hopeful Paul Tsongas sought to revive his candidacy, he had Stephen King (yes, that Steven King) re-introduce him at Momma Baldacci's. John Kerry made the requisite stop there, so did a few Kennedys, and should John Baldacci ever decide to run for president, he knows where to start: he owns the place now.

His signature on the gay-marriage bill wasn't always certain. He'd once opposed the notion, falling on the side of the half-baked, or half-pregnant, and entirely discriminatory, "civil union" camp. But he saw, if not the light, then at least the shift in the winds of equal protection.

“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.” Last month Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a gay-marriage bill into law, but only after the state supreme court had decreed same-sex marriage legal. Vermont's legislature also approved a same-sex bill, overriding its governor's veto. Courts in Iowa, Massachusetts and California declared gay marriage legal, though a back-lurching referendum in California invalidated that state's ruling. New Hampshire's legislature today sent a same-sex marriage bill to its governor, who's not too thrilled at the thought of signing it.

In Lebanon, like in most countries in the Middle East (Israel is a notably gay-tolerant exception) homosexuality is not even legal. Neither are movies that deal with the subject candidly. In places like Morocco, Kuwait and of course Saudi Arabia (standard-bearer of regressive repression of most rights civil and sexual), it's state-sponsored open season on any form of sexuality that doesn't excite the clerical establishment.

Then again, the bans on gay marriage in the United States (bans that continue in the overwhelming majority of states, let's not forget), aren't anything to wave the Stars and Stripes over. Baldacci's signature had, the subtext of a simple and just signing statement: Goodbye to all that.