Gay marriage supporters rally Thursday in downtown Portland, Maine, in a final campaign push before Tuesday's vote on a same-sex marriage referendum.
President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney have opposing views on gay marriage. Obama announced earlier this year, he supported gay marriage while Romney continues to view marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Egan argues Obama's announcement made a big splash in the gay community and cemented the gay vote for the Democratic Party for years to come.
"My best guess is that we are going to see this divide going forward for a few more decades," Egan says. "The Democrats keep moving the ball even further forward."
But even with gay marriage initiatives on the ballot and Obama polling better among the gay community than voters at large, Egan says gay voters are unlikely to sway the presidential election in any major way. All of the ballot initiatives are in safe Democratic states, and gay voters only make up a small fraction of the electorate.
But moving forward, Egan says the LBGT community and their straight allies could push the political needle and put more pressure on their political leaders to not only support gay marriage, but do something about it.
"Gay marriage is a big deal to younger generations. It is younger people who are being raised to believe that gay marriage is the issue of our time."
Pick says she's optimistic Mainers will be the first state to vote for gay marriage on the ballot, but if not, she says the movement will only continue to gain traction in Maine and beyond.
"The fight will continue to go on," Pick says. "And if we don't win it in four years, we will win it in six or in eight."
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Lauren Fox is a political reporter for U.S. News and World Report. You can follow her on Twitter or reach her at lfox@usnews.com.
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