Chalk up one for the forces of decency.

The Christian Civic League, whose leaders are apparently fixated on the sex lives of others, has abandoned its latest effort to spread hate and intolerance across the state. That effort took the form of a campaign to repeal the state's gay-rights law and eliminate other safeguards for lesbians and gays.

The League's ballot measure also would have banned unmarried couples from adopting children and barred the state from recognizing same-sex marriages or civil unions.

To get that measure on the ballot next year, the League needed to submit more than 55,000 signatures to the Secretary of State by next January.

But something happened on the way to the ballot box: The League couldn't get enough signatures. Evidently, there just aren't enough people who share the group's intolerance.

Or maybe, with gas and home heating oil prices being what they are, Mainers just had the good sense to distinguish between a real problem and a manufactured one.

Or maybe enough of us know enough gays and lesbians to understand they are not a threat to anyone and their personal lives are no one's business but their own.