Rev. Don Miller headed up an enormously successful outreach to the people of Maine in the mid 1990s called "No Room for Hate." He rallied hundreds of Maine pastors to his loving and truthful message. I was troubled with his effort at first, but eventually came around to see the wisdom of his educational campaign.

I was concerned because I felt it was obvious that Christians don't hate. I was offended that our society had arrived at a point where it was necessary for clergymen to proclaim -- in relationship to homosexuality -- that there is no room for hate. That was as obvious to me then as it is to me now. Of course there is no room for hate.  There is no room for hate against any person.

I went from Rev. Don Miller's retirement party to my friend Paul Madore's home. As we sat in his livingroom Saturday night discussing the situation in Maine with the Governor's "gay rights" law he showed me the front page of the Lewiston Sun Journal. A picture was published in the bottom right corner of the front page. It showed the Governor, tongue gleefully protruding from his mouth, surrounded by smiling legislators and witnesses. He was signing his "gay rights" law.

The image was jarring and weird. Pictured here were some of the most powerful decision makers in Maine. They were gleeful about signing a law that equates "homosexuality, bisexuality, gender identity and expression (transexuals and cross dressers)" with skin color, gender and religion.

It is so bizarre that I am sure many Maine people simply accept what these powerful people say uncritically, while they consider the assertions of lesser known folk like me to be suspect. They cannot bring themselves to believe that these powerful individuals are actually smiling about the fact that they just ignored two consecutive referendums so that they could lay the foundation for "same sex marriage" and provide legal protections so that men wearing dresses can use the ladies rest room.

Maine people want to believe that their Governor is doing them no harm, and that he has their best interests at heart. They don't want to believe that his signing of that bill has anything to do with the fact that a "transgendered" adult was speaking, officially, to the impressionable teens at Cony High School on that very day. Mainers push from their minds the possibility that their Governor would support an affirming discussion of transgenderism with middle schoolers (parents didn't know) under the watchful eye of the Attorney General in 2003. Mainers just don't want to believe it is true.

The problem is . . . all of it is true. The Governor says that "same sex marriage" is fine with him. Just not yet. That is like his assertion that he is "pro choice." He is actually pro abortion. If he were really pro choice then he would agree with his church, which is strongly against abortion for the best of reasons, and as leader of Maine's government he would help young men and women make the best choice -- to save themselves sexually for the person of the opposite sex with whom they will spend the rest of their life raising a family. Instead, when he is finished, family and marriage will be whatever each individual says it is. What that means is that "family" and "marriage" will mean nothing.

Saturday presented two very different visions of Maine's future to me. A future defined by the minister, Don Miller, where there is "No room for hate" or a future defined by our gleeful Governor where there will be no room for marriage, no room for true faith and no room for common sense.

If you want to help create a common sense future for Maine go to www.coalitionformarriage.net