Mar 19, 2004  |  By: JOE CREA  | COMMENTS     

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Legislators heard testimony this week on a bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories in Maryland’s hate crimes statute, and a vote on a bill that would offer same-sex couples some medical decision making rights was set for the end of this week.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard testimony on the Hate Crimes Penalties Act (SB 698) on Wednesday. Last month, a House committee heard testimony on the bill but it has yet to vote on the measure.

Attempts last year to add sexual orientation to the state’s 1988 hate crimes statute passed in the House but failed in the Senate by one vote.

Sheila Savaliski, a retired police officer from Baltimore City, said she testified in favor of the new hate crimes language for personal and professional reasons. Prior to becoming a member of the Baltimore police force 21 years ago, she said she was attacked outside a Baltimore bar. She said the perpetrators were never prosecuted. During her tenure, Savaliski actively investigated such hate crimes from 1991-2003. She was also the unofficial liaison to the gay community working to get victims to report such crimes.

Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, a gay rights group, suggested that House leaders might be waiting for the Senate to act on the legislation in committee before they tackle it.

Furmansky said the Health & Government Operations Committee will vote this week on the Medical Decisions Making Act of 2004 (HB 1284), sponsored by Del. John A Hurson (D-Montgomery County).

HB 1284, which has more than 40 co-sponsors, would set up a domestic partnership program for same-sex couples and allow them to visit one another in the hospital and make medical decisions for each other.

Furmansky said the legislation would add provisions to the current Maryland health code. It would “establish a mechanism for same-sex partners, or opposite-sex partners over the age of 62, to register with the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene in order to enter into a registered domestic partnership. Partners would have the right to visit a partner or partner’s child in a hospital or other health care facility, have access to a partner in a medical emergency, and have authorization for a partner to make health care decisions.”

Gay rights activists scored a big victory last week after House legislators defeated two Defense of Marriage bills that would have strengthened the state’s current ban on gay marriage.

And before debate was to begin on the senate’s versions of the DOMA bills, the sponsors pulled them from consideration. Furmansky said Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County), chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said they would go nowhere because both bills were killed in the House Judiciary Committee.

But Furmansky said gays must remain “vigilant” about attempts to bring the DOMA legislation to the Senate floor. That was the case last week in the House when Del. Gail Bates (R-Howard County) attached a DOMA bill to H.B. 746, a bill that clarified which judges are authorized to perform marriage ceremonies and the fees they may charge. It was voted down 52-82, with seven delegates abstaining.

“By pulling the Senate version of the DOMA bill just before the committee could consider it, the bill’s Senate sponsors may hope to avoid an unfavorable committee vote on the legislation and increase the bill’s chances of being seriously considered as an amendment on the floor of the Senate,” Furmansky said.