Go to the Web site of Stand for Marriage Maine (www.standformarriagemaine.com) and right at the top you'll see a young heterosexual family – smiling Mom and Dad with two carefree kids piggybacked on their shoulders – presumably hand-picked from the multitudes of Mainers who are working to overturn the state law legalizing same-sex marriage.

Now go to www.monkeybusinessimages.com, an online store for "stock photography." Now type "couple giving two young children piggyback rides smiling" into the search box.

Voila! There they are again! The same happy family from who knows where?

OK, so it's hardly the first time a political campaign has used clip art as a shortcut for dressing up its home page. But, as the same-sex marriage campaign enters its crucial final month, the Piggyback Family illustrates one very noticeable difference between those defending same-sex marriage in Maine and those trying to abolish it.

The anti-repeal "No on 1" campaign overflows with real Mainers who are willing – no, make that eager – to go public in their support of equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

And the pro-repeal "Yes on 1" campaign? Not so much.

Since it took to the airwaves a month or so ago, Stand for Marriage Maine has attached four – and only four – faces to its televised ad campaign. And of those four, only one person is actually from Maine.

There's Scott Fitzgibbon, the professor from Boston College Law School who touched off a near insurrection on his own campus last month when he warned on camera that Maine's same-sex marriage law would produce a "flood of lawsuits" and lead to mandatory teaching of homosexual marriage in Maine's public schools.

Ten days ago, at his request, I e-mailed 10 questions to Fitzgibbon. Among other things, I asked if he has ever lived in Maine or if he's licensed to practice law here. He didn't respond. This week, I nudged him with a follow-up e-mail. Still nothing.

There's Robb and Robin Wirthlin, who in 2003 unsuccessfully sued the Lexington, Mass., school department after their son's teacher read the book, "King & King," to her class. Their on-camera comments make no reference whatsoever to Maine – in fact, the exact same footage was used last fall to defeat same-sex marriage in California. (Oh, well, at least they believe in recycling.)

Finally, there's Charla Bansley. The ad in which she appears, warning that same-sex marriage will be taught in public schools if Question 1 is defeated, includes the words "teacher" and "Ellsworth" next to her name.

What the caption doesn't say is that, while Bansley lives in Ellsworth, she doesn't teach in that community's public school system. Rather, she teaches at the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Orrington (where, statute or no statute, the kids aren't likely to hear a word about same-sex marriage any time in this millennium).

Also missing from the Bansley ad is the fact that, when she's not masquerading as a public school teacher, she's president of the Maine chapter of Concerned Women for America – a faith-based organization whose mission is "to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens – first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society – thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation."

In short, Bansley is without question a Mainer. But a "teacher" in "Ellsworth" with a direct interest in what happens (or doesn't happen) in Maine's public schools? You decide.

Contrast all of that with the "No on 1" ads now on the air – proof positive that Maine is as much a "big small town" as it is a state.

There's Sarah Franklin of South Portland, whose 45 years as a public school...