ORONO -With Maine voters poised to consider the issue for the fourth time in 10 years, the state’s new gay rights law took center stage in this college town with supporters arguing for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and opponents warning of a quick path to gay marriage should the law take effect.

“This is not about marriage; this is about real people,” Ted O’Meara, senior adviser of the pro-gay rights group Maine Won’t Discriminate, told the overflowing crowd that came to watch the Tuesday evening debate on the University of Maine campus. “It’s about basic human rights.”

O’Meara’s opponent in the 90-minute debate was Michael Heath, the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, which is spearheading the effort to repeal the law at a Nov. 8 referendum.

Heath, whose frequent and harsh condemnation of homosexuality has made him a lightning rod in the debate, said the law, if allowed to take effect, would quickly legitimize same-sex unions in the state.

“If a no vote prevails, it won’t be days that pass before we’re looking at a lawsuit or a bill from Gov. John Baldacci proposing same-sex marriage,” Heath predicted.

Supporters note language in the law specifically stating that it does not sanction such unions. A spokesman for the governor’s office reached Tuesday evening said Baldacci had no intention of proposing a gay marriage law.

The forum, sponsored by UM Student Government, marked the first – and thus far only – scheduled debate in what has proven to be a particularly divisive issue in Maine politics.

Question 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot will read: “Do you want to reject the new law that would protect people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and credit based on their sexual orientation?”

Maine voters have sent mixed messages on the issue in the past 10 years, during which time they have considered similar measures three times at the ballot box.

In 1995, Mainers rejected an attempt to repeal local gay rights ordinances and prevent their future adoption. In 1998 and 2000, however, voters narrowly rejected efforts to add sexual orientation to the list of classes protected from discrimination under state law.

While Maine voters, in general, have been difficult to pin down on the issue, voters have been clear as a bell in this college town, where between 66 percent and 75 percent of voters have supported gay rights in past referendums.

Heath consequently found himself in politically hostile territory, a fact he acknowledged and one that was clearly evident from the enthusiasm of the opening applause given to each debater.

For the most part, however, the crowd, estimated at 450 people – most of them students – kept their disapproval of Heath’s message to low whispers and occasional laughter during the debate.

Afterward, however, Joey Bishop, a first-year political science student and supporter of the law, hadn’t changed his mind.

“I came here to try to understand the perspective of the guy who wanted to vote yes,” said Bishop, 18, of Presque Isle. “I listened intently the whole time but … I didn’t understand how [Heath] thought this was connected to anything but discrimination.”

Opponents of the law, while difficult to find in the crowd after the debate, expressed the need to better spread their message on campus.

“I think that we haven’t had the outreach we need. I don’t think the kids have the whole message,” said the league’s Elaine Graham, who said she sold only “a few” pins advocating traditional marriage at the event.

Even before the debate, the sides clashed, with the Christian Civic League of Maine in its online newsletter labeling O’Meara, a former staffer to U.S. Sens. William Cohen and Olympia Snowe, a member of the “liberal elite” and predicting O’Meara would be “slippery as an eel” at the debate.

The debate itself turned testy at times with O’Meara chastising Heath for “personal attacks” on the league’s Web site, and Heath leveling similar charges against some supporters of the law for labeling its opponents “haters” or “homo-phobes.”

The debate was moderated by John Greenman of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.