Feb 09, 2007  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Maryland lawmakers are certain to consider at least two gay issues this session, including a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.

That measure — along with a bill to bar discrimination based on gender identity and expression — were filed this week in the General Assembly. Both issues are guaranteed hearings before the session concludes April 9.

Equality Maryland Executive Director Dan Furmansky pledged to fight the proposed amendment.

The legislation, offered as Senate Bill 516, would bar discrimination against transgender people in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. It has two sponsors, including the Senate’s only openly gay member, Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County).

Meanwhile, the proposed constitutional amendment would amend the state document to include the following: “Only a marriage between a man and a woman is a valid marriage in this state.”

The amendment, offered as Senate Bill 564, is championed by Sen. Larry Haines (R-Baltimore and Carroll counties) and supported by 12 other senators.

Similar but stronger amendments were considered last year. Those measures, which would also have outlawed civil unions and domestic partnerships, died in committee.

Madaleno said amendment supporters were expected to try again this year, in part because the state’s highest court is considering a same-sex marriage case. A ruling could come at any time.

“Quite frankly, this proposal is not a surprise,” he said in a legislative update mailed this week, “and I have already been working with colleagues and Equality Maryland to defeat it once again.”

Neither Haines nor Rick Bowers, chair of Defend Maryland Marriage, a group that supported last year’s proposed amendment, could immediately be reached for comment.


Hearings to be held soon

Both the proposed amendment and transgender bills were referred to the Judicial Proceedings Committee. Furmansky said the committee should consider the bills later this month or sometime in early March.

If passed, the transgender bill would make Maryland the 10th state to adopt such protections.

California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Washington state, along with D.C. and 86 cities and counties, all have enacted laws to bar discrimination based on gender identity.

Donna Cartwright, a Baltimore resident and transgender outreach consultant for Equality Maryland, said Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to support the measure.

“He, in fact, signed the Baltimore City ordinance [that enacted similar protections] when it passed in 2002,” said Cartwright, who is transgender.

The bill, while similar to the comprehensive measures passed elsewhere, would not bar discrimination in all circumstances.

Employers with fewer than 15 employees, employers that are religious institutions, schools and associations, the Boy and Girl Scouts and rooms in an owner-occupied dwelling or an apartment in a dwelling with fewer than five units are exempt from the Maryland legislation.

Dana Beyer, a transgender Equality Maryland board member, said she’d prefer coverage in all instances, but understood the need for exceptions.

“I think we all benefit when everybody is brought to the table,” she said, “when everybody is treated with decency and respect.”

Beyer, who this week made personal appeals to legislators to back the bill, encouraged other transgender Marylanders to do the same.
“This is not a detached philosophical debate — this is about real people,” she said. “And the more real people that legislators know, the likelier they are to do the right thing.”

Cartwright said the bill, while imperfect, would help foster equality in Maryland.

“I think it will go a long way to improving public attitudes,” she said. “It won’t be the end of the road, but it will be the largest step we’ve ever taken.”