The new commercial from Stand for Marriage Maine/Yes on 1 is a nearly exact copy of an ad run last year by Yes on 8 in California. And I’m not exaggerating. Take a look.

Here is the Maine ad:



And here is the California ad:




Remember, both ad campaigns were run/are being run by the same public relations firm, Schubert Flint. You’d think they weren’t trying at all. It’s the same ad!! Using the same footage! It seems that they figure that since they won (for now) in California, all they have to do is repeat everything in Maine and get the same result. Again, I believe they have underestimated the people of Maine. Mainers aren’t stupid, and they won’t accept 1) being lied to, and 2) being fed the same, word-for-word, frame-for-frame garbage that Californians had to put up with.

Further, the teacher featured in the Maine ad, Charla Bansley, is not a public school teacher, like Sherri Gould- the teacher in an ad for Equality Maine. Bansley teaches high school English at a private Christian school called Calvary Chapel Christian School. An anonymous student of hers shared the following story with the blog Good As You about their experience with the school’s strong anti-LGBT stance. In part, it says:

 I actually am a student of Ms. Charla Bansley. In our English class, of which she  teaches, we were, school wide, given the project of writing a letter to the editor of  our local newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, expressing our views on same sex  marriage, whether we were for it or against it. I, myself, decided to write for it.  Well, that turned out to not be such a good idea after all. I almost got expelled.

You may be thinking that since this is a private Christian school, that the way the school handled the situation may not reflect the way that Ms. Bansley personally feels. But remember, she did appear in Yes on 1’s ad. And there’s more. A lot more.

Charla Bansley is a staffer for the Stand for Marriage Maine campaign. They used one of their own people. Bansley has spoken on behalf of the campaign at more than one of their rallies, along side Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Rev. Bob Emrich of the Maine Jeremiah Project, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Bishop Richard Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine.

At a rally on September 13th at the Augusta Civic Center, she made this gem of a statement:

 For one, every country that has legalized same sex marriage has seen marriage die  and we cannot allow that to happen in the state of Maine.

And no, she doesn’t explain what she means by that. (And how could she- it makes no sense.) The confusing rhetoric continued (did it ever stop?) when she said this:

For years we have sat idly by content to wag our tongues about the foxes rather  then catching them and preventing them from ruining the vineyard of love. Family  experimentation of no fault divorce, the sexual revolution, cohabitation, fatherless  ness, have all been documented failures, harming women, and children, and  society in far deeper ways then any one ever imagined. In the next seven weeks  and beyond we as Mainers we as the church must covenant together to catch all  the foxes, those little fox, before they ruin the vineyard of love.

“Experimentation of no fault divorce, the sexual revolution, cohabitation…” Who is not a “fox” in this example? And her language about what to do with those “foxes”…(”catching them and preventing them from ruining the vineyard”) frankly doesn’t sound very safe…or good for families.

Charla Bansley is also the state director of the Concerned Women for America of Maine. If you don’t know about the CWA, here is their mission statement:

 The mission of CWA is to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens  - first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society -  thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation.

(Notice they say all citizens, showing their disrespect and disregard for citizens with non-Christian religious beliefs and people who do not personally accept any religious beliefs.)

And here is what they have to say on Family, which is one of their 6 “core issues”:

CWA believes that marriage consists of one man and one woman. We seek to  protect and support the Biblical design of marriage and the gift of children.  

(The Biblical design of marriage? Really? The one where a man could have as many wives as he could afford? The one where women were literally the property of men? That Biblical design of marriage?)

As the state director of CWA, she also signed her name to this 2005 letter to the Chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Resolutions Committee in order to “move the "Resolution on Homosexuality in Public Schools" forward.” The letter says, in part:

Our signatures below represent the hundreds of thousands of individuals who are  concerned about the presence of homosexual tolerance and diversity programs  within the public school system in America.

 We see what the presence of Gay-Straight Alliances, Diversity Clubs and other  ‘social change’ clubs do to the atmosphere within the school – “No Name Calling  Week,” “Day of Silence,” tolerance classes, diversity training for students and  teachers alike. Many times even ‘safe-sounding’ activities such as anti-bullying,  safe schools or anti-harassment programs are used by homosexual organizations  to get their message that “gay is okay” through the schoolhouse doors.

 Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and GLSEN are just  two examples of organizations which specifically target children. From GLSEN’s  same-sex marriage curriculum – which falsely equates that cause with the noble  struggle for Black civil rights -- to PFLAG’s “From Our House to the  Schoolhouse,” a step-by-step guide that promotes homosexuality and  transgenderism in the name of making local schools less ‘discriminatory and more  diverse,’ our nation’s schools – and thus our children – are the targets.

 We also agree with Dr. Scarborough that if this resolution is not brought forth for  a vote, “(T)hat would be unfortunate indeed. Whatever messengers decide to do,  given the gay indoctrination all too prevalent in our public schools, this is a matter  that deserves serious discussion.”

This is the woman- the teacher- that Stand for Marriage Maine chose to feature in their ad about how marriage equality would, as they claim, effect school children.

As was probably inevitable, the actions of Stand for Marriage Maine are becoming their downfall. They do not have a legitimate case against equality- such a thing would be impossible- so what they are left with (using lies to play on fear) is not holding up against reality.

As stated from this blog post on Good As You:

But the biggest bit o' ridiculousness here? That they are using Charla Bansley in  the "teacher" role, making it sound as if she's just some layperson.

 To identify Ms. Bansley as merely a "teacher" is like simply calling Barack  Obama a CEO of an important entity.

 It is almost unbelievable that the campaign would use her, a private Christian  school teacher, to speak on this civil matter and think that nobody would notice.

In summary…



From a recent Research 2000 poll featured on Daily Kos, we can see that Question 1 is a very close race. Currently, 48% say they support a repeal of marriage equality for same-sex couples, while 46% plan on voting No to protect marriage equality.

We can win this. Maine can show the country that we as a people will not accept a campaign of lies and fear-mongering intended to exclude our loved ones from legal rights and protections.

To learn more about the campaign to Protect Maine Equality and to learn ways that you can help, please visit their website.

~ Samantha