Source: The Boston Globe
Two days before he voted to approve same-sex marriage, Larry Sirois stood and faced the congregation in his small Maine church.
Word had gotten out that he was planning to vote yes, and Sirois, a retired math teacher, self-described born-again Christian, and state legislator from tiny Turner, was feeling the heat. He had already spoken to his pastor and offered to resign as deacon. Now he rose on May 3 to offer the church an explanation.
"I knew probably 90 percent of them didn't agree with me, and I knew they were going to be upset with me," said Sirois, 62, who struggled with his decision. "I said, 'I'm not trying to convince you of anything.' . . . I told them I was leaning toward accepting it, and that it was purely an issue of fairness, that I don't agree with the gay lifestyle, but that these people deserve the same rights."
With Maine's legalization of same-sex marriage last week, and a vote by legislators in New Hampshire that brought the Granite State to the brink of assent, New England cemented its position as the only part of the country where a block of states has granted marriage rights to same-sex couples.
Liberal politics clearly plays a part, but the reasons for the rapid transformation are more finely shaded than simple blue-state, red-state color coding, according to analysts. The distinctive thinking of religious New Englanders such as Sirois - their view of religion as private and personal, and their separation of their own beliefs from politics - has enabled change, said Mark Silk, a professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Hartford.
"There's a very strong sense we have that there's a religious community, and that's where we do that thing, but then there's the public realm where we respect different views," Silk said.