Jennifer Pizer, a national gay rights advocate, said this week would be seen as "a moment when our entire country turned a corner."

Maine should also turn this corner, not because Vermont did, but because equality, which is guaranteed by our Constitution, demands it.

Separate is "inherently unequal." That language from the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, is what lawmakers need to keep in mind as they consider two bills dealing with same-sex relationships.

LD 1118, An Act to Expand Rights for Maine Families, was recently printed. Its sponsor, Rep. Leslie Fossel, R-Alna, said the measure would extend the same rights and responsibilities that married couples have to people enrolled in the state's domestic partner registry. The bill, he said, would avoid a "culture war" over gay marriage.