Apr 18, 2008  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Three months ago, Marty Rouse was hopeful that Maryland lawmakers would extend new rights to same-sex couples.

Rouse, a Maryland resident who works as national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, told the Blade in January that he and his neighbors could win marriage rights, civil unions or domestic partnerships this year.

“I feel very confident that we will be successful in 2008,” he said at the time. “Well, I’ll say cautiously optimistic. I’m sorry. Cautiously optimistic that we will see some kind of relationship recognition in 2008.”

But Rouse’s hopes were dashed after efforts to grant gay Marylanders marriage rights died in committee. Bills to enact civil unions or domestic partnerships were snubbed by activists and failed to gain traction.

In the end, Maryland legislators granted same-sex couples just a few new privileges, such as hospital visitation rights, before they adjourned last week.

Rouse, who lives near Bethesda, Md., said the session’s outcome was “extremely disappointing” to him and other gay Marylanders.

“It proves that we, as a community, have a lot more work to do,” he said last week. “Politically, we’re just not there yet. That’s the reality that we face. We’re not there yet. We do not have enough political power to win what we deserve.”

Other observers agreed, noting that gay Marylanders who dreamed of winning marriage rights this session set their hopes too high.

Vic Basile, a former Human Rights Campaign executive director who lives in Baltimore, said that “it was pretty clear right from the beginning that marriage had zero chance of passing” the legislature this year.

Part of the reason for that, said Maryland Black Family Alliance Director Elbridge James, was the marriage bills lacked the backing of state Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch.

“I do not think the leadership in the House and Senate were strongly attached to the bill,” James said, “and I do not think Speaker Busch or Sen. Miller were in any way in favor of the bills or were inclined to let them hit the floor.”

Miller and Busch, both Democrats, said before the session that they would not support marriage rights for same-sex couples. Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley said he would consider signing a marriage bill, but repeatedly noted his preference for civil unions.

Stephen Clark, a professor at Albany Law School who is gay and tracks civil rights issues, said those stances should have been a warning sign to Equality Maryland and other marriage rights advocates.

“Given those constraints,” he said, “why would Equality Maryland undertake what I would call a marriage-or-nothing campaign?”

Clark said Equality Maryland made a mistake when it chose to lobby exclusively for marriage.

“When you can’t get the leader of either chamber or the governor to endorse your marriage-or-nothing strategy,” he said, “you might consider rethinking your strategy.”

‘Enamored with ideology’

Clark, who lives in Washington, said Equality Maryland would have done better to pursue a “pragmatic compromise” than fail to achieve the ideal.

He likened Equality Maryland’s decision to exclusively pursue marriage rights to last year’s move by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force to work against a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that lacked protections for transgender people.

“Whether it’s this or whether it’s ENDA,” Clark said, “we seem to have movement leaders who are too enamored with ideology and not concerned enough about pragmatic politics.”

But Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, said it was important that the organization worked hardest to obtain that which gay Marylanders most want.

“Why would you ever ask for less than you deserve?” he said. “LGBT civil rights organizations aren’t in the business of saying, ‘Hey, would you consider treating me like a second-class citizen?’”

Furmansky also noted the organization, which last year lost a lawsuit seeking marriage rights for gay couples, was tasked by its donors, members and directors to aim high.

“If we had gone in asking for something less than marriage,” he said, “we might have walked out of this session with even less than what we got.”

The Health Care Facility Visitation & Medical Decisions bill and a measure granting domestic partners an exemption on recordation and transfer taxes were the only pro-gay bills lawmakers passed this session.

Equality Maryland had four lobbyists working in Annapolis this session. Their efforts were augmented by an American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist and two additional lobbyists HRC hired to help the state organization.

Rouse said HRC and Equality Maryland had a “terrific working relationship,” but went into the session with slightly different approaches.

“We were very upfront with our lobbyists that we wanted to support marriage equality, but we would ...