Feb 15, 2008  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — It was 18 degrees outside the Maryland State House when Del. Heather Mizeur stepped to the microphone.

As she looked across the hundreds of people that had come to demand marriage rights for same-sex couples, it was obvious that many in the crowd were cold. So the Democrat from Montgomery County offered some comfort.

“I hope it heartens you to know that during last week’s unseasonably warm weather, the opposition had their own press conference for a same-sex marriage ban,” Mizeur said. “It lasted for less than five minutes because there were only three people who showed up.”

Although a breeze blew through the crowd, making the air seem colder than it was, there were laughs and cheers.

“I hope it’s not lost on the press here,” Mizeur said, “that the gathering we hold here tonight on this cold evening sends an extremely strong message on where Maryland stands for marriage equality.”

Equality Maryland’s lobby day drew more than 500 people Monday to Annapolis and triggered an estimated 100 meetings with state senators and delegates.

Mizeur and others who spoke said the meetings were crucial to educating and influencing lawmakers who are considering this session whether to grant marriage rights to the 15,600 same-sex couples living in Maryland.

Such rights could be bestowed by the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act, which is sponsored by 49 legislators. The measure had its first committee hearing Thursday, after Blade deadline.

Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Mont-gomery County), one of the bill’s sponsors and member of the reviewing Judicial Proceedings Committee, said the measure seeks to enact equality.

“We are not here to ask for anything,” he told the crowd. “We are here to demand the equality that the constitution confers and to assert that as Marylanders, we are equal and we will be equal when it comes to the rights of marriage in the great state of Maryland.”

Del. Todd Schuler (D-Baltimore County) noted the measure was one that he’s happy to support.

“I do come from a conservative area in Baltimore County, but justice and equality are not liberal or conservative issues,” he said. “They’re basic human principles, and that’s why I’m proud to stand down here in solidarity with the marriage equality movement in the freezing cold.”

Although it’s the most strongly supported, the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act is one of several competing proposals lawmakers are weighing.

Also in the running are bills that would enact civil unions, or rename all marriages to domestic partnerships and allow same-sex couples to enter into such unions. Yet another proposal seeks to constitutionally ban any unions of same-sex couples.

Rev. Andrew Foster Connors, pastor at Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, downplayed the proposed ban when he spoke at Monday’s rally.

“The opposition is still a small group of well-meaning, largely religious folk who think they are doing you a favor by protecting you from your rights,” he said. “They think they are saving marriage by making it more difficult to promise to love someone monogamously. I still haven’t figured that one out yet.”

Connors said a measure granting same-sex couples new rights and responsibilities was more likely to pass.

“Five years ago, the politicians said you’ll get civil unions over my dead body,” he said. “Now they’re begging you to settle for that one.”

But Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County), the state’s only openly gay senator, said people who support marriage rights for same-sex couples must explain why “civil unions are nice, but they’re not enough.”

“It is incumbent on us to explain the toll that it takes on our relationships now with no legal recognition and it would in the future in a world where we would be separate and unequal — how that is unfair,” he said. “It will damage us and it will damage our children. And the only resolution to this is full civil marriage equality.”

Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore) said that’s something that many of the General Assembly’s youngest members have told her they understand.

“When you walk up to them and say, ‘You know, we ought to have civil marriage in the state of Maryland,’ they say, ‘Yeah,’” she told the crowd. “So I want you to know that I believe we are getting much closer to having the votes in both the House and the Senate ...