Oct 05, 2007  |  By: KEVIN NAFF  | COMMENTS     

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Gov. Martin O’Malley, in an exclusive interview with the Blade this week, indicated that he is amenable to signing a bill extending marriage rights to gays, as long as it contains a provision exempting religious institutions.

“Without infringing on anyone’s faith, that would be a law I should sign,” he said.

Several lawmakers have vowed to introduce such a measure in the next legislative session beginning in January, though passing a marriage bill in Maryland would likely be an uphill fight. Senate President Mike Miller has said that he opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions. O’Malley said he backs civil unions and was disappointed by Miller’s opposition to such a measure.

The interview, conducted in the governor’s office in Annapolis, came about after gay Marylanders reacted with disappointment and anger to a statement O’Malley issued last month in response to the state high court ruling upholding a ban on same-sex marriage.

“…Those of us with the responsibility of passing and enforcing laws have an obligation to protect the rights of all individuals equally, without telling any faith how to define its sacraments,” O’Malley said in a statement. “I respect the Court’s decision.”

But this week, O’Malley said he regretted that last sentence.

“I would have deleted that line about respecting the court’s decision,” he said. “I was trying to separate religion from the rights of marriage.” He added, “the court was saying they take a restrained view of judicial activism on this issue and turned it over to the legislature.”

Several plaintiffs in the case accused O’Malley of flip-flopping on the question of marriage support. They cite e-mails from O’Malley that expressed support for gay marriage and a 2004 WJZ-TV interview in which he said he backed “civil marriage.” Several members of O’Malley’s gay task force while he was mayor of Baltimore said he told them he supported same-sex marriage.

O’Malley this week denied that he ever supported same-sex marriage and said his position has never changed.

“It is false that I changed my position,” he said. 

Lisa Polyak, one of the lead plaintiffs in the Maryland marriage case, shared with the Blade her private e-mail exchanges with O’Malley during the course of the court fight. In one message, O’Malley responds to an e-mail from Polyak thanking the then-mayor of Baltimore for his support of same-sex marriage. O’Malley writes, “You are most welcome, Lisa. However, I’m just supporting something I strongly believe in. I wish you and your family nothing but the best.” That message is dated Oct. 22, 2004.

But O’Malley said any e-mails to the plaintiffs were sent by a staff member in his constituent services office and not by him directly.

“Someone in constituent services took too great liberties with language,” he said.

That explanation did not sit well with Polyak.

“I think it’s easy for him to deny what he said because he’s never had to face us personally,” she said. “He’s willing to say that other people wrote e-mails on his behalf and signed his name and … they made a promise on his behalf without his knowledge and against his explicit intention? I don’t believe it. The bottom line is we cannot trust Governor O’Malley.”

As for the WJZ-TV interview, which remains available online at www.wjz.com, O’Malley said he now regrets his choice of words then. During the interview, O’Malley said, “I’m certainly not opposed to it. I don’t see how we can deny governmental protection to those sorts of contracts. I know that churches will certainly have different views. And that certainly is their right and no one should infringe on that. But ... I’m not opposed to civil marriages.”

But this week, O’Malley said, “I regret using the word marriage. I believe my position then is consistent with what I say today. … I support equal respect and equal rights under the law.”

The legislative path to relationship recognition in Maryland will likely include a full marriage rights bill, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and possibly a civil unions bill in the next session, which begins in January. [See related story on Page 6.] O’Malley reiterated his opposition to an amendment, which Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) has promised to introduce again. A similar measure died in committee last year.

At the time of that debate, ...