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Mar 5, 2010
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gay marriage advocates in Maryland urged state lawmakers Wednesday to follow the lead of nearby Washington, D.C., where same sex couples were applying for marriage licenses for the first time.
The Maryland Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee had hearings scheduled on one bill that would legalize gay marriage in Maryland and another that would invalidate a recent attorney general opinion and prohibit the state from recognizing same sex marriages authorized by other states. Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said last week in a long-awaited opinion that state agencies must now recognize out-of-state gay marriages until the Legislature or courts decide otherwise. In addition to the District of Columbia, same sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Baltimore resident Donna Martin says she married her wife in California in 2008 before voters there repealed laws that permitted gay marriage.
“We knew when we got married that we would be coming back here with no rights as spouses,” Martin said. “We're here today to try to push that idea along so that people in Maryland can have the same rights as people in other states do.”
Opponents of same sex unions said the recent Attorney General opinion also gave them a sense of urgency. Bishop Clifford Johnson from Baltimore's Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries said ministers from at least 30 Maryland congregations had made the trek to Annapolis to rally for legislation to ban recognition of gay marriages from other states.
“The Attorney General has made an opinion or statement that shapes our destiny here in Maryland and I want to stand firmly and unequivocally against that,” Johnson said, adding that he doesn't want D.C.'s gay marriage policy to “bleed over” into Maryland.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller says neither bill addressing gay marriage is likely to pass this year.
“I do believe that if any law were proposed to legalize gay marriage it would not pass the Maryland Senate and if it did I believe it would be petitioned to referendum ...” Miller said. “I don't think we're going either forward or backward on either bill.”
Leaders of gay rights group Equality Maryland said several gay couples in Maryland were already planning trips to D.C. to apply for marriage licenses.
Melanie Morris, 31, said she and her partner would be traveling from Odenton, Md. to D.C. to apply for a license to wed Friday. Morris said she was looking forward to obtaining legal recognition of her relationship in D.C., but “frustrated” that she couldn't get married where she lives.
“It is mixed emotions, definitely,” Morris said.
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