Civil Marriage Protection Act
The General Assembly first considered the Civil Marriage Protection Act in 2011. Governor Martin O'Malley stated that he would sign the bill, despite urges from then-Archbishop of Baltimore Edwin Frederick O'Brien requesting that he "resist pressure to do so." O’Malley said "I have concluded that discriminating against individuals based on their sexual orientation in the context of civil marital rights is unjust. I have also concluded that treating the children of families headed by same-sex couples with lesser protections under the law than the children of families headed by heterosexual parents, is also unjust." On February 24, 2011, the Senate, which was thought to be the biggest obstacle to passage, approved the bill in a 25–21 vote. The House of Delegates proved to be a challenge, where same-sex marriage advocates struggled to gain support from social conservatives from Prince George's County, southern Maryland, and the Baltimore suburbs who cited religious concerns.
The debate highlighted disagreements between openly gay lawmakers and some black lawmakers on whether same-sex marriage is a matter of civil rights. Delegate Emmett C. Burns, Jr. said: "If you want to compare same-sex marriage to civil rights as I know it, show me the Ku Klux Klan that invaded your home." Delegate Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr., grandson of NAACP chief lobbyist Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., said "It is a civil rights issue when we as a state and a government deny equal protection under the law." Several delegates who originally co-sponsored the bill began to express doubts after being lobbied by church-going constituents, including Sam Arora and Tiffany Alston, who delayed the bill's vote in the House committee by skipping the voting session. The bill passed through the committee after its chairman, who rarely votes in committee, voted in favor. The House majority whip opposed the bill. Despite pleas from gay lawmakers, the House of Delegates voted to send the bill back to committee on March 11, 2011 and would not reconsider it before January 2012.
Read more about this topic: Same-sex Marriage In Maryland, Legislative Action
Famous quotes containing the words civil, marriage, protection and/or act:
“Over thy wounds now do I prophesy
...
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men,
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, “What will you have, sir?” And I said, “A glass of hemlock.””
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Expulsion from Eden is an act of vindictive womanish spite; the Fall of Man, as recounted in the Bible, comes nearer to the Fall of God.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)