Together with Maine NOW and chapter activists, and in liaison with "Maine Won't Discriminate," the statewide organization opposing the measure, NOW officers and staff will join in a field organizing campaign to ensure the defeat of the ballot question.
In 1992, the NOW Action Center deployed personnel and resources to the field to support the campaign against Colorado's Amendment 2, which is similar to the Maine referendum. That amendment has been declared unconstitutional and is on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court for review in the 1995-96 term. In 1993, NOW joined in the effort to defeat a Lewiston, Maine, referendum that removed sexual orientation from the city's human rights code.
NOW President Patricia Ireland declared: "NOW deplores the repeated assaults against lesbian and gay rights. All of our rights are at risk when the government starts targeting any one group for legalized discrimination."
Lesbian Rights is one of NOW's five national priorities, and the feminist organization has actively challenged anti-lesbian and gay initiatives since its involvement in the 1970s in campaigns to defeat such ordinances.