rdfs:comment
| - Same-sex marriage in Maine became legal on December 29, 2012. The bill for legalization was approved by voters, 53-47 percent, on November 6, 2012, as Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first U.S. states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Election results were certified by the Maine Secretary of State's office and the Governor of Maine on November 29.
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abstract
| - Same-sex marriage in Maine became legal on December 29, 2012. The bill for legalization was approved by voters, 53-47 percent, on November 6, 2012, as Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first U.S. states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Election results were certified by the Maine Secretary of State's office and the Governor of Maine on November 29. The 2012 referendum was a reversal of action on a similar bill three years earlier. On May 6, 2009, a bill to allow same-sex marriage in Maine was signed into law, by Governor John Baldacci following legislative approval. Opponents of the bill successfully petitioned for a referendum before the law went into effect; voters rejected the law on November 3, 2009 in a "people's veto." Until the referendum result rejected the law, it appeared that Maine would be the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage through the legislative process with a governor's signature, rather than following a judicial ruling. Vermont was the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by statute, but its legislature did so by overriding its governor's veto.
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