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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, March 30, 2007
Maryland lawmakers have killed an attempt to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution for the fourth consecutive year.
But the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature failed to pass a measure to bar discrimination against the state’s transgender residents and workers.
Those are among the mixed results for gay Marylanders from a legislative session that’s heading into its final days. Gay activists said lawmakers, who are set to adjourn April 9, were uneven on key issues.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland.
He said a bill requiring insurance companies to write policies that are inclusive of domestic partners and their children was poised to pass the Senate after clearing the House.
Another bill that gives gays and others the right to sue locally for damages in cases of employment discrimination also was expected to pass.
“We’re thrilled that gays and lesbians will have the right to sue for compensatory damages,” he said. “But it’s shocking and upsetting that our transgender equality bill went down in flames.”
Senate Bill 516 — which sought to bar discrimination against transgender people in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations — was narrowly defeated after several unexpected developments.
Furmansky said the Judicial Proceedings Committee chair, Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County), initially was reluctant to call for a vote on the bill despite a 2006 campaign pledge to support such legislation.
“Senate leadership did not want this bill on the floor for fear of a filibuster, which we think was highly unlikely,” Furmansky said.
Frosh called a vote March 23 to decide whether the measure should go before the full Senate, where activists expected it to pass.
“We had the vote count on the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate,” Furmansky said. “We had the votes.”
But the measure died in committee, 6-5, when Sens. Norman Stone Jr. (D-Baltimore County) and C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s County) joined the committee’s Republican members to kill it.
Furmansky said Muse’s vote came as a surprise because the legislator had repeatedly committed to Equality Maryland lobbyists and others that he would support the bill.
Muse did not respond to the Blade’s repeated attempts to contact him.
“We’re disturbed, disgruntled, hurt and angry that such a common-sense piece of legislation, with practically zero opposition, became bogged down by political maneuvering,” Furmansky said.
Sen. Lisa Gladden, the bill’s author, said this year’s measure nonetheless marked a step forward.
“Although this bill was voted down, we made tremendous progress on educating the committee and the members of the General Assembly on this important issue, and we will reintroduce and pass this bill next year,” she said.
Equality Maryland board member Dana Beyer, who is transgender, agreed. She vowed to keep working with Gladden and others to pass the measure.
“We’re almost there in Maryland,” she said, “and I’m hopeful that we will reach our goal next year.”
Marriage amendment killed
Despite that legislative defeat, Furmansky welcomed a House committee’s vote March 21 to kill an effort to ban same-sex marriage in Maryland.
The judiciary committee voted 12-8 to reject House Bill 919, which also sought to bar public schools from teaching about “same-sex relationships.” The measure was considered unlikely to pass the General Assembly and would have faced a gubernatorial veto.
Although the vote also came largely along party lines, two Democrats supported the measure.
Dels. Kevin Kelly (D-Allegany County) and Gerron Levi (D-Prince George’s County) voted to support the bill. Neither delegate responded to requests for comment.
Furmansky said the bill’s defeat was due in part to the many gay Marylanders who spoke against it.
“Clearly,” he said, “the strong and compelling witnesses who testified against this bill were heard by the lopsided majority of legislators who rejected the legislation.”
Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel County), the bill’s author and a judiciary committee member, could not be reached for comment.
But Rick Bowers, chair of Defend Maryland Marriage and pastor of Living Stone House of Worship in Pasadena, Md., said the amendment fight isn’t over.
He pledged to eventually put the issue of same-sex marriage to a popular vote, even if it means reshaping the General Assembly to do so.
“The sign of an impotent legislature is the reliance on another branch of government to do their job,” he said. “We have a legislature that’s hiding behind the robes of a judge like a small child would hide behind the skirt of their mother when in danger.”
Mixed results elsewhere
Furmansky said his organization’s other legislative priorities met with mixed results.
A bill granting domestic partners the benefits of group life insurance appeared headed for passage in the Senate. And a bill that would have exempted insurance companies from writing policies inclusive of domestic partners and their children died in committee.
But a bill to allow cohabitating Maryland adults to deduct up to $5,000 in medical expenses from their state income was withdrawn earlier this month.
Two other bills backed by Equality Maryland also floundered.
House Bill 430, which would have required state contractors to pay its workers a living wage, died in committee despite having 60 sponsors. Senate Bill 546, meanwhile, got little traction in an attempt to address certain campaign finance issues.
Regardless, Furmansky said he felt good about the organization’s overall batting average.
“We feel as though we’re maximizing our resources to do right by the communities that we represent,” he said. “We continue to move forward at a rapid rate in the state of Maryland and have no intention of slowing down.”
Furmansky noted that tentative plans for next year’s legislative session are already forming.
“What we do know is that our priority will be passing transgender equality legislation,” he said. “It’s an absolute travesty that we weren’t able to get it passed this year.”
In the meantime, however, Furmansky said Equality Maryland is preparing for the state’s highest court to issue a ruling in a key marriage case. Among the options the judges are considering is overturning Maryland’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage.
“We’re running a full-scale campaign that involves outreach to all sectors of Maryland,” he said.
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