Sep 19, 2003  |  By: LAUREL FAUST  | COMMENTS     

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Free State Justice Board President Larry Jacobs said he hopes marriage rights will be the next rallying cry that will motivate Marylanders to get involved in the statewide gay rights organization as the group enters a new era following the resignation of its executive director last week.

Jacobs said Free State’s staff lobbyists plan to simultaneously work for civil unions and marriage equality and against anti-gay marriage legislation. The next state legislative session begins in January.

“When gay people start to realize how well funded the religious right is, and how they simply ignore the truth about gay people and their relationships, and distort the information that they do have and use it against us, the gay community is going to have to step up to the plate,” Jacobs said.

Free State Executive Director Jon Kaplan said last week that he will step down from his position in October — less than 12 months since he took the position — to return to his work as a fund-raising consultant.

Kaplan did fund-raising work for Free State before he was selected to be executive director in December 2002. He will continue to help raise funds for the organization. Free State is currently conducting a regional search for a new director.

Free State Justice was founded in 1990 but hired its first executive director, Liz Seaton, in 1998. She was succeeded a year later by Blake Humphreys, who served as managing director until Kaplan took over less than a year ago. Jacobs said that before 1998, the organization was too small to have a paid director.

Free State now has two paid positions, the executive director and a part-time grassroots director.

He said Free State is the only organization in Maryland that lobbies for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

Jacobs said that membership has increased steadily over the years, but that funding decreased slightly after the organization waged a successful court challenge to the conservative group Take Back Maryland in 2001. The group sought to overturn statewide protections against discrimination for gays and lesbians that were won in the legislature the same year.

After that success, Jacobs said there was a brief lull in participation. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 contributed to the decline in interest. Jacobs said Free State has 8,500 members, but he didn’t know what percentage of those are paying dues.

Free State’s fiscal year 2002-2003 budget was $100,000, Jacobs said, down from $102,000 the year before. The projected budget for this year is $110,000.

DP registry sought for Montgomery County
In addition to the marriage fight, Jacobs said Free State will also work to create a domestic partners registry in Montgomery County that would allow gay partners to receive some of the benefits that married couples do, including hospital visitation rights and tax benefits.

Jacobs, an attorney with offices in Rockville, Md. and McLean, Va., said much of his work involves estate planning for gay and lesbian couples. He said Free State needs to forge ahead into issue areas in the local jurisdictions that the state is not yet ready to tackle. He said Free State hasn’t launched a formal campaign yet, but he hopes domestic partner legislation will pass in Montgomery County within the next year.

Jacobs said that historically, the more progressive counties and the city of Baltimore have enacted legislation before the state does. When state officials see that the local jurisdictions aren’t flooded with lawsuits, then they consider statewide legislation.

“Montgomery County is far and away the most progressive place in the state,” Jacobs said.

He said the organization will look at other issues including hate crimes and discrimination in rural Maryland counties.

Activists want organization to focus on other issues
Maryland activists differ on what they think Free State’s priorities should be.

Baltimore gay activist and civil rights attorney Cathy Brennan said she doesn’t think Free State should utilize its limited resources to pursue marriage in the legislature. She said that Free State should coordinate with other organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union to pursue gay marriage in the courts.

“They need to leverage their resources so they get the most for their dollar. The economy’s not great. People don’t have so much money to give. You’ve got to give us a reason to donate to our organizations,” Brennan said.

She said that Free State should limit itself to one or two missions and focus on them exclusively.

Shannon Avery, also a gay activist and a Baltimore attorney, disagreed. She said that Free State should focus ...