but not surprised.
I grew up in Maine, went to college in Maine, and left Maine after I graduated. I continue to have a love-hate relationship with the place, with an annual pilgrimage enough to remind me what I love about the place and why I left.
At the end of the day, the heavy lifting of one county -- Cumberland Co., home to Portland, Maine's largest city -- wasn't sufficient to offset the other 15 counties in the rest of the state. While a few southern, coastal counties teetered back and forth over the 50-50 line, the rest came down decidedly in the Yes column.
To me, this is largely a class issue. Southern coastal areas are more cosmopolitan. They are wealthier, better educated, and host most of Maine's huge tourism business. In short, they know gay people. The inland areas (where I'm from) are isolated geographically and culturally. They are poorer and more blue collar. Think depressed mill towns. If you grow up gay there, you make it through high school in one piece and you leave. In short, they really don't know gay people.
The good news is that this is also a generational battle, and the wind is at our backs. Check out this soothing balm of a
post at Daily Kos, written by their resident Mainer. It made me feel a helluva lot better today.