Good news if it pans out:
A majority of senators on a key committee in Maryland now favor legalizing same-sex marriage, making it increasingly likely that the state will join five others and the District in allowing such unions.
Membership changes on the panel, where same-sex marriage bills have previously died, are among a handful of shifts produced by last month’s elections. Collectively, they appear to have tipped the balance on the most high-profile social issue the General Assembly will consider during its upcoming 90-day session.
Republican gains Nov. 2 in other state legislatures are expected to lead to more conservative social policies. But Democrats in Maryland bucked the trend, adding two seats to their majority in the Senate. Moreover, when the General Assembly convenes next month, a few senators who lost primaries will be replaced by Democrats more supportive of same-sex unions.
Watch for the hate groups to start bitching about “activist legislatures” and stuff.
[h/t Jeremy]
Maryland has a referendum process and contains regions way more conservative then its liberal central area is liberal. Our state is a lot like California in that the part of Maryland everyone outside the state knows (the area between the D.C. suburbs and Baltimore) isn’t the whole picture. Maryland’s eastern shore is to Maryland as Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley is to California. And our Western areas aren’t much better.
So it’s only the central part of the state that can be counted on to really support equality, and there’s the rub: It’s the more urban and heavily populated, but in a referendum will support for marriage equality in central Maryland be as passionate as the opposition is certain to be?
Maryland has gained a progressive reputation over the years and justifiably so, but remember we also gave the union Justice Taney and Spiro Agnew and there are people living here who still speak fondly of both. If they pass marriage equality in the statehouse, there =will= be a referendum. Hopefully we’ll have learned some lessons from the prop 8 fight in California to defeat it. But it will be ugly.
Oh…and one other thing…you can count on this: NOM is already plotting its referendum strategy for Maryland. Our civil rights groups had better be doing the same. Now. Right now.
I am so sick of our rights being out to a vote.
There are pros and cons to this.
The cons are that even though Maryland is a blue state it still has a large Catholic and African American population. It was the Catholic Church that played a big part in Maine’s referrendum last year.
There are some pros however. Every year approval for gay marriage increases. Gay marriage is already recognized in Maryland, just not performed so it’s population can see “the sky hasn’t fallen” by allowing gay people to be married.
Another strong argument is that because marriages are being performed in DC, the state will continue to loose revenue.
Third, many of those who vote against gay marriage are the elderly and many of those voting for it are the young. By the time 2012 comes around there will be a whole new group of young people who are comfortable with it. Will it be enough? Who knows.