AUGUSTA -- The Christian Civic League of Maine has abandoned its campaign to repeal the state's gay-rights law and prevent other safeguards for gays and lesbians, saying in an e-mail to supporters that it lacks money and volunteers to pursue a referendum in November 2009.

Wednesday's decision, which was made public Thursday, came about two months after the league announced that it hoped to collect 55,087 voters' signatures to place its proposal on the ballot, and less than one month after the state issued petitions to the league on May 21.

In addition to repealing the anti-discrimination law, the referendum would have prohibited unmarried couples from adopting children.

It also would have barred the state from recognizing civil unions, prohibited municipal officials from licensing same-sex marriages and eliminated funding for the state's civil-rights teams.

Supporters say the teams fight bullying in Maine schools. The league argues that the teams persuade teenagers to accept homosexuality.

Thursday's e-mail to supporters from Michael Hein, the league's administrator, said the league dropped the drive because it has "neither enough funds nor enough volunteer support to continue the effort."

Yes for Marriage and Equality, a political action committee created in April to raise money for the referendum, reported $821 in contributions and about $520 in expenditures through late May, leaving about $300 in cash on hand.

Although the league circulated its petitions at polling places during the primary election on June 10, Michael Heath, the group's executive director, estimates that the league has collected about a third of the 15,000 signatures it had hoped to have by now. Heath said the league's board of directors decided to drop the campaign Wednesday night, capping what he described as "a very difficult week of analysis, assessment and decision" on how to proceed.

Equality Maine, an advocacy group for gays and lesbians, sent volunteers to 35 polling places in eight counties on June 10 to explain its side of the issue to voters.

Betsy Smith, that group's executive director, credited those efforts with dampening the league's signature gathering.

"What June 10 showed all of us is that there was a lot of support for our side," Smith said. She said Equality Maine's decision to make its case to voters at the polls "made a difference in minimizing the number of signatures they collected."

The two sides cast the failed effort in dramatically different terms. Heath described it Thursday as a drive to preserve "a traditional marriage culture." Smith condemned it as a "broad attack" on basic rights for gays, lesbian and their children.

Maine already has a law on the books that effectively prohibits same-sex marriage by defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

This week, California became the second state, after Massachusetts, to begin marrying same-sex couples.

Maine does not allow civil unions for gays and lesbians. Such unions are legal in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont.

The 2005 gay-rights law that the league had hoped to repeal added "sexual orientation" to the Maine Human Rights Act, which also prohibits discrimination based on age, race, religion and other factors.

The gay-rights law survived an earlier challenge at the polls when voters upheld it in 2005 by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent.

The anti-adoption provision in the failed petition effort stemmed from a 2007 ruling by the Maine Supreme Court allowing unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to jointly adopt children.

One safeguard that the league's referendum did not try to undo is the state's domestic-partner registry, which became effective in 2004.

The registry gives registered partners "a legal status similar to that of a married person with respect to matters of probate, guardianships, conservatorships, inheritance, protection from abuse, and related matters," according to a Web site run by the state Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the registry.

The league's proposed referendum was one of several petition drives that are under way in Maine to force public votes on a range of issues.

The others include two so-called people's veto referendums designed to repeal newly passed state laws.

One people's veto would block new taxes on beverages and insurance claims to pay for the state's Dirigo Health program, which includes a health-insurance plan known as Dirigo Choice.

The other people's veto would repeal a new state law that would tighten the state's procedures for issuing driver's licenses, in part by requiring that applicants prove they are in the country legally.

Organizers of each of those two campaigns must submit 55,087 voters' signatures to the state by July 17 to force a statewide referendum vote on Nov. 4.