May 19, 2006  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele isn’t backing down from his public opposition to same-sex marriage now that his campaign for the U.S. Senate is heating up.

Steele told religious leaders gathered in Lanham earlier this month that marriage is a covenant exclusively for one man, one woman and God.

“Marriage is not a purely human institution,” he said, according to a report in the Baltimore Examiner. “Marriage defines not only the relationship between a man and a woman but also their journey through life. They should not be brow-beaten into thinking something that goes counter to what the people in the community aspire to.”

Steele has rallied against same-sex marriage during his tenure as lieutenant governor, but critics said Steele has entered new territory by incorporating that stance into his campaign to succeed retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat.

Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, said Steele is essentially waging an “anti-gay U.S. Senate campaign.”

“No one is surprised that he has chosen to attack gay and lesbian Americans under the guise of protecting marriage,” Furmansky said. “I think that Republicans have shown a propensity to use whatever tools are at their disposal to win a campaign.”

Rev. John Crestwell, minister at Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church in Camp Springs, said Steele’s stance on same-sex marriage wrongly mixes church and state.

“Churches can do whatever they want when it comes to marriage,” he said. “The government cannot oppose people from having a union. That’s unconstitutional.”

U.S. senators are expected to vote next month on the federal Marriage Protection Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions and other forms of relationship recognition for same-sex couples. Political observers expect the effort to fail.

Calls to Steele’s campaign office were not returned. But those who heard the Republican candidate speak in Lanham supported his stance.

Rick Bowers, chair of Defend Maryland Marriage, said Steele’s comments weren’t discriminatory.

“I think that it defined marriage for what it is,” Bowers said, “and relationships that don’t fit that mold simply can’t be marriages.”

Steele, who serves under Gov. Robert Ehrlich, has publicly opposed same-sex marriage for several years.

He and other members of Ehrlich’s administration opposed marriage equality in 2004 after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Baltimore claiming that the state’s law prohibiting gay marriage violates the Maryland Constitution. A Baltimore Circuit Court judge has since ruled the law is unconstitutional.

Ehrlich and Steele later softened their rhetoric. In the months before the 2004 election, Steele said he “would not want to see this election defined by that issue.” He also advocated letting “greater minds worry about it.”

But he then attended a Defend Maryland Marriage rally in 2005 that called for a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. The proposal died in committee.

At the Alliance for Marriage Foundation meeting May 3, Steele invoked religion while asserting that marriage is exclusively for a man and a woman.

Crestwell said Steele should separate his religious and political beliefs.

“Religion is a private opium,” he said, “and we cannot allow our private opium to dictate public policy.”

Furmansky criticized Steele for perpetuating the belief that gays cannot be people of faith.

“I think this pretty much spells out that he feels gay people are godless,” Furmansky said. “As someone who has been asked, not once but twice, while testifying against anti-gay measures if I believe in God, it’s obvious that there are a lot of people in this country who feel that being gay and being a person of faith are incompatible.”

Furmansky said that’s not true, and noted many gays have active spiritual lives.

“Despite the fact that millions of gay Americans feel spiritually disenfranchised because of homophobia in the pulpit,” he said, “a great number of LGBT people are lucky enough to find rich, spiritual inner lives.”

Steele rallying support on right

Crestwell said Steele’s opposition to same-sex marriage was well received during his appearance at a Prince George’s County church with a predominantly black congregation.

“He went to his constituents,” Crestwell said. “This might not be a big issue for him, but he knows it’s a big issue for them.”

Furmansky agreed. He said Steele is trying to rally the conservative support he needs to win in a Democratic-leaning state.

“I think that like any Republican, Steele is playing to his base,” he said, “and the, ‘moral majority’ is more interested in talking about gay marriage and abortion than economic justice and public health safety.”

Most candidates campaigning to succeed Sarbanes favor marriage equality for gay couples.

Democratic candidates Kweisi Mfume and Allan Lichtman support full marriage equality for gay couples. Green candidate Kevin Zeese ...