As lesbian rights program director, I spent five weeks organizing in Maine, including a two-week organizing campaign at 12 Maine universities with Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey . Her workshops provided students with NOW's well-honed organizing skills and strengthened the bridges between campus activists and local NOW chapters . We carried out or initiated voter registration drives on every campus. NOW's efforts were pivotal in turning out student votes in record numbers. The positive results of this organizing are abundantly clear.
Students are vigilant in the fight for equality and clearly understand the power of their vote.
Hundreds of women joined forces for a statewide literature drop with Maine Won't Discriminate, a coalition of organizations fighting the referendum. Throughout the campaign, NOW organized phone banks and mailings to ensure our members voted No on 1. The Maine Secretary of State's office reported that voter turnout Nov. 7 was the second highest in the state's recent history, with 44.4 percent of potential voters casting a ballot. Question 1 was the only anti-lesbian and gay measure on any ballot this year. Voters in Oregon and Idaho defeated similar measures in 1992 and 1994.