The Maryland Senate has approved the marriage bill which has already passed successfully through the House. Just before the vote…
On the eve of a historic vote in the Maryland Senate on a marriage equality bill, Governor Martin O’Malley appeared confident that the bill, which passed the House of Delegates last week, would pass the senate and be on his desk perhaps by the weekend. Maryland would become the 8th state to offer marriage rights to gays and lesbians, though the law could face a voter referendum in November.
“I believed that in my short service to the people of this state that the consensus point on this issue could only be reached around civil unions,” O’Malley said of his prior position on the issue, appearing on my radio program on SiriusXM OutQ on Wednesday. “I was wrong. It became possible to reach a consensus on marriage equality.”
“There’s been an evolution in the broadest sense among the people of our state,” he continued. “Initially, when this issue first became very visible, after Mayor Gavin Newsom conducted marriages in San Francisco [in 2004], I think initially a lot of people had a lot of fear — and a lot of misplaced fear — and over time I think people have come to realize that the way forward, among people of many different faiths, is always through the greater and broader respect for equal rights for all.”
The Governor has indicated he will sign the bill into law, which will make Maryland the 8th state to legalize same sex marriage.
