AUGUSTA – Within hours of Gov. John Baldacci signing his gay rights bill into law Thursday at a State House ceremony, the measure’s religious conservative opponents gathered in the Hall of Flags to outline their plan to overturn it.

If the pros-pect of a “people’s veto” referendum to repeal the bill hung over the signing ceremony, supporters who packed into the governor’s Cabinet room weren’t showing it. Neither was the governor, proclaiming confidently, “It’s a law.

“Together we will send a message to the world. Maine is a state that embraces everyone who lives here, or moves here, or visits here, or returns home,” the governor said to cheers from the large crowd. “Our doors are open to all people.”

The new law prohibits discrimination against homosexuals in the areas of housing, education, lending and employment. The Maine Human Rights Act already prohibits discrimination in those areas based on gender, age, race, religion, and physical and mental disability.

Technically, the gay rights law, LD 1196, won’t take effect until June 29. Opponents have until June 28 to submit 50,519 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office in order to force a November 2005 referendum. Opponents hope to collect 70,000 signatures and $2 million to run the campaign. If they can force a referendum, the law won’t take effect unless voters approve it.

At a Thursday afternoon “pro-marriage” rally, a group of evangelical pastors – including Bangor Baptist Church pastor Jerry Mick, vowed to send the matter back to Maine voters, who have twice, albeit narrowly, rejected similar initiatives in the past decade.

“The governor and the Legislature are not truly concerned with the voice of those who live in our state,” Mick said, referencing lawmakers’ decision this week to pass the governor’s initiative without voter approval. “[They] have circumvented what the people of Maine truly want.”

Two years ago, Mick failed in his attempt to overturn the city of Bangor’s anti-discrimination ordinance. Mick made it clear that opponents would focus the ensuing statewide debate over gay rights on the more controversial issue of gay marriage.

“This is not an issue of discrimination,” Mick said in front of the hall’s staircase, packed with about 100 pastors. “This is about taking the foundation … of marriage to a place that is extremely dangerous.”

The law makes it clear it does not sanction gay marriages and exempts religious organizations that do not receive public funds.

Betsy Smith, director of the pro-gay rights group Equality Maine, rejected the assertion that the law’s supporters had other motives.

“The law they’re trying to repeal is about basic fairness and ending discrimination in jobs and housing. It’s no more and no less than that,” Smith said in an interview at the opposite end of the hall, where supporters had gathered to protest the religious rally.

“We will talk about marriage discrimination, but not in this context, and not now,” Smith added.

At the opposing rally, Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, intimated that voters might have a chance to weigh in on gay marriage in 2006. Heath, in vague terms, announced the group’s intention to put a question on the 2006 ballot “relating to the marriage issue.”

In recent elections across the nation, voters have displayed much more support for gay rights than for gay marriage, according to Oliver Woshinsky, a retired political scientist from the University of Southern Maine.

Considering those current voting trends, Woshinsky said opponents could have a tougher time defeating the gay rights measure in Maine this year, as they did in 1998 and 2000.

“Given that it has been so close, time could tip the balance toward gay rights supporters,” Woshinsky said Thursday. “But it’s been close in the past; it’s likely to be close again.”

Voters have been unpredictable on the issue. Besides twice rejecting initiatives like the current one, voters soundly defeated an anti-gay rights measure in 1995.

Should the law take effect on June 29, Maine would join 15 states in protecting homosexuals from discrimination. About a dozen Maine communities already have similar laws.

To see how individual lawmakers in the Senate and House voted on LD 1196, see links attached to this story online at: www.bangornews.com