Children. Family. God.
The gay marriage debate, which the Maryland Court of Appeals will hear arguments in on Monday, is fueled by the most personal of issues and emotions.
Glen Burnie attorney Owen Taylor, who filed a brief on behalf of the Maryland Center for Law and Justice, which opposes gay marriage, said his clients are motivated by Biblical condemnations of homosexuality.
“We live in a Christian society founded on Christian principals and so we believe that Christian principals should be applied,” he said.
But David Rocah, staff attorney for the Baltimore branch of the ACLU, makes a passionate argument that gay families should not be treated like second-class citizens.
“Denying lesbian and gay families the same rights as heterosexual families have is both unconstitutional and wrong,” Rocah said. “These are families in every respect of the word, yet the law treats them as a strangers, which has horrible consequences for both families and kids. Lesbian and gay families are entitled to the same rights as everyone else. They have the right to have their government treat them the same way any other family is treated.”
The state is asking the high court to overturn a Baltimore City Circuit Court ruling that a Maryland law defining marriage as between one man and one woman is unconstitutional.
Rockville attorney C. Paul Smith, whose clients include Citizens for Traditional Families, filed a brief in the case opposed to gay marriage in Maryland.
“If [Baltimore City Circuit Court] judge Brooke Murdock?s decision is sustained at the highest level it will change marriage substantially and hurt children and society,” he said. “If you look at this case from the point of view of the gay couples, maybe you?ll find it?s better for them. But I don?t think that?s the approach for the government to take. It should look at the whole of society.”
