Sep 12, 2008  |  By: AMY CAVANAUGH  | COMMENTS     

One year after Maryland’s high court upheld a law banning same-sex marriage, gay couples remain angry, yet many are confident that their dream is within reach.

“It’s unfortunate that we haven’t gotten very far toward getting equal marriage rights in the state of Maryland,” said Patrick Wojahn, a case plaintiff who lives with his partner, Dave Kolesar, in College Park.

“I’m optimistic for the future, and I think it’s only a matter of time before we have marriage rights. Unfortunately the state Assembly has not yet addressed the discrimination that the courts have also failed to address.”

Lisa Polyak, another plaintiff who lives in Baltimore with her partner, Gita Deane, and their two children, said she still feels the sting of the court ruling 12 months later.

“I think it’s fair to say we’re still extremely saddened by the court’s action, and I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that will leave us for a long time since it continues to wound our ability to take care of our family,” she said. “When you juxtapose that with all the things that are going on in states around us — as happy as we are for those states making progress, we’re sad that Maryland courts and legislature don’t seem to understand that gay and lesbian citizens deserve equal treatment.”

Last year’s decision reversed the January 2007 ruling by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock that the state law banning same-sex marriage discriminates against gay couples and could not “withstand constitutional challenge.”

The Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 on Sept. 18, 2007, that limiting marriage to the union of one man and one woman neither denies gay couples any constitutionally guaranteed right nor discriminates against them.

While monumental in the state, the ruling had little lasting impact nationally.

Stephen Clark, a professor at Albany Law School who is gay and tracks civil rights issues, said the Maryland decision “has been greatly overshadowed by the victory in the California Supreme Court,” which earlier this year granted same-sex couples the right to wed.

“Maryland was the third or fourth state in a series of losses, so it standing alone never had great impact,” he said. “It sort of contributed to a view that we wouldn’t win cases in many states.”

Carrie Evans, the policy director for Equality Maryland, said that her organization reacted quickly after the decision to keep pressing for more rights for same-sex couples.

“We introduced a marriage bill with 49 co-sponsors, held hearings, got good media attention, and we really set a great foundation,” she said. “We had the plaintiffs involved in hearings and it was a rather seamless transition from losing the court case into the legislature.”

In the legislative session that followed the ruling, Maryland lawmakers passed two bills that secured new rights for gay or straight domestic partners.

Senate Bill 597 added “domestic partners” to the list of family members that people can add or remove from the deed of their home without paying recordation and transfer fees. Senate Bill 566 allows “domestic partners” to visit each other in the hospital and make funeral decisions for each other, among other rights.

Wojahn said the bills passed represent “a step” forward, but fall far short of the goal.

“I don’t want to deny the fact that we have gotten somewhere, but it certainly doesn’t address the discrimination,” he said. “It’s good that my partner and I have more rights, but it does not accord our relationship the same respect that straight married couples have.”

Polyak, who called the continued ban on same-sex marriage “so hurtful it’s indescribable,” agreed with Wojahn.

“As bad as that was, what happened in the legislature this past session was more hurtful,” she said. “There were people we expected to stand by us, but they turned and ran in the other direction. It’s hard to endure.”

Some gay Marylanders are trying to persevere. State Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery County) said that she and her partner “weren’t content to sit around and wait for Maryland to catch up with other progressive states.”

“We went and were legally married in California on July 9,” she said. “But we firmly believe that one day we won’t be California dreaming any longer and marriage equality will happen in the Free State.”

Wojahn, however, said that he and Kolesar have no plans to wed in California or Massachusetts.
“The marriage would not be recognized in Maryland if we were to get married in another state, so there’s really no point to it,” he said. “And I really think we will be able to get married in Maryland in the ...