The governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, will lay out a strategy tomorrow to get marriage equality passed in his state:
Activists have been working for months to persuade him to put his name on the controversial bill and include it in his legislative agenda. “I supported it last year,” he said. “I support it now.”
[...]
O’Malley this morning noted that the recently enacted gay marriage law in New York shows “that we can protect religious freedoms and equality of civil marital rights at the same time.”
Much of the lengthy debate on the issue in Maryland centered on ensuring that churches, synagogues and other religious institutions could opt-out of performing ceremonies their faith does not condone. Supporters accepted amendments in committee and on the Senate floor to beef up that section of the bill — making it clear that churches would not have to change their practices to accommodate gay members.
As is typical, anti-gay marriage factions wanted special rights to discriminate in areas outside the practice of their religion, and they will want them again, but hopefully the New York law will provide a decent blueprint for how Maryland and other wavering states can get this done.
“The governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, will lay out a strategy tomorrow to get marriage equality passed in his state.”
Huh? Marriage equality already exists in Maryland.
“O’Malley this morning noted that the recently enacted gay marriage law in New York shows “that we can protect religious freedoms and equality of civil marital rights at the same time.”"
Two state clerks have had to resign since they could not in good conscience perform their jobs yet Mr. O’Malley believes his state will be different?
Gay and bisexual men and women in same gender relationships are not allowed to marry the people they love. Transgender and transsexual men and women, whether they identify as straight, gay, lesbian, or bi, are often not allowed to marry those they love depending on where they are or are not in their transitions at the time they marry and whether or not their state even recognizes such transitions or to what degree they do (Google Nikki Araguz if you don’t believe me).
That is NOT equality.
Jeremiah, the two state clerks in NY didn’t HAVE to resign. It was their choice. In order to not have to obey the law, they removed themselves from the PUBLIC payroll. I love it when clear thinkers start bemoaning the loss of freedom when they are paid by the public to perform a public service and yet don’t want to serve ALL of the public, instead picking and choosing whom they will serve. Those two decided to follow their consciences/beliefs and,in doing so, could not perform the duties of their respective jobs. THEY made the choice to not work for the taxpayers anymore. Fine. I could just see garbage men on the public payroll deciding whose garbage they will take or not depending on the garbage makers sexuality. If you like being paid by the taxpayers, then you serve all of the taxpayers in your job capacity.
Jeremiah, why should the public have to pass some beaurocrat’s religious test to get service?
Stop the lying JeremiahA. You know very well whst marriage equality is and Maryland does NOT yet have it.
As for the clerks who don’t want to sign and issue licenses, let them resign. There are plenty of people grounded in reality and who would be only too happy to have a good government job in this economy.