If the secretary of state finds the veto campaign gathered enough signatures, Gov. Angus King will schedule an election for sometime between December and April. Towns and cities would have to pay their own costs of holding the election. Heath said of the veto campaign. Our surveys show 86 percent of the people in Maine are against giving special rights to homosexuals,'' Paul Volle of the Christian Coalition of Maine said Thursday. Gay-rights opponents assert that homosexuals do not deserve explicit statutory protection from discrimination, or ''special rights,'' because gays and lesbians do not suffer the same hardships and deprivations faced by minorities distinguished by race, religion, ethnicity and other familiar traits.
Sexual morality is the second major theme.
This issue also was present with Question 1. But morality was a secondary theme because Concerned Maine Families, which organized the 1995 initiative, emphasized the special-rights question. Heath made clear Thursday that morality is at the core of the veto campaign. ''I don't think it's possible for the nation or state to understand this issue apart from a fair and meaningful understanding of biblical morality,'' he said. The veto campaign is likely to draw groups and individuals familiar from the Question 1 debate. The Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry opposed Question 1 in 1995.