With Obama, a climate change in Maine civil rights

President Barack Obama. (AP)

With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency in November, no one can dispute the fact that the American political landscape has changed in fundamental ways. Obama's majority was the largest for a Democratic candidate since LBJ's in 1964, and there are now more Democrats in Congress than at any time since the Johnson era as well.

Continuing to think historically, it strikes me that the Johnson era was also the last time that major civil rights legislation was enacted by the Federal government.

It is an open question whether Barack Obama—given the depth of the economic crisis, the increasingly dire situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the pressing necessity of bringing sanity to our health care system—will have political capital left to spend on providing equality before the law to those without it—to women, to minors and, first and foremost, to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) persons.

Here in Maine, Obama's election is something that a lot of us take pride in. But clearly not everybody—a quasi-underground backlash of sorts is under way. The past four month have seen KKK graffiti spring up along miles of a jogging/biking trail in Hallowell, desecration of the road sign of the Orthodox Jewish Temple in Portland, the open racist denunciation of Obama by a high school student in class, and the lynching of Obama in effigy in multiple places on Mount Desert Island. And an anonymous swamp of snark roils on the comment pages of the websites of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal and the Waterville Sentinel. These comment pages have become the modern equivalent of an anonymous poison pen letter, with cut-out newsprint letters glued to the page. Whatever the publishers and editors of the Blethen newspapers think they are doing (aside from turning a profit), they are certainly not providing information or suggestions for change to their readership.

Here's one question I have: if someone posted a direct threat against President Obama's life in the comments section, would the PPH/MST staff provide the poster's contact information to the FBI? To the Maine Attorney General's office? And, in the aftermath of the desecration of Temple Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, when literally dozens of comments section postings were editorially deleted due to their content, was there contact with law enforcement? Do these folks get referred to the AG's office if they post a specific threat against any identifiable group of people?

Stephen Wessler, the Executive Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence in Portland, tells me that he is very busy and frankly worried. I am reminded that America had a terrorist problem before 9/11/2001, only it was home-grown and sprang from the far right. After 2001, the Dubya Years provided a sense of empowerment/security/justification to the get-back and get-even hate mongers; but now, of course, that has changed in a big way.

So, the major civil rights initiative under way here in Maine, Senator Damon's pending bill to legalize same-sex marriage and recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere where they are legal, comes before the Maine legislature and our body politic at a time when the political climate (like our current weather) is inclined to swing between extremes. The organizations mobilizing support for this bill, such as the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Equality Maine, and Maine Women's Lobby, have a real groundswell of momentum with them—33,000 voters signed on the dotted line to support same-sex civil marriage on election day. We'll look at who is on both sides of this issue in future columns.

Special Report: Obama's First 100 Days
Exclusive examiner.com coverage of the Obama administration's promise to bring about change.

• Examiner Coverage: First 100 Days
• Vote now: What will Obama change most?
• The Obama Administration at a glance
• Examiner Coverage: inauguration day 2009