[politics] Ayuh, no bigots heah

Big news out of Maine regarding yesterday's defeat of an atttempt by the American Taliban to roll back Maine's civil rights protections for gays and lesbians. At this time, with 75% of all precincts reporting, the initiative to remove references to sexual orientation from Maine's anti-discrimination laws looks like it has been defeated soundly - by a 12-point margin, no less. Quite the change from 7 years ago. The initiative failed everywhere, not just in Portland (where it was defeated by a 3:1 margin), but according to Joe & John of AMERICABlog (Joe has been volunteering in Maine) in the more conservative cities, and many of the rural precincts as well:

The margin of victory in Portland was 77% - 23% -- super, but that's not the best part. Maine Won't Discriminate won in all the bigger cities in the state -- even the more conservative places like Bangor, Biddeford and Lewiston. Our side won in small towns like Skowhegan. Across the state, Mainers rejected discrimination and the vitriol spewed by Michael Heath of the Maine Christian Civic League.

There are no results posted on the Maine Secretary of State's website yet, so I can't verify those numbers, but still - this is a major shift in peoples' thinking, regardless.