ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland Senate is expected to approve a gay marriage bill Thursday evening, once debate resumes on a measure that would ultimately make Maryland the sixth state to recognize same-sex matrimony.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert/Prince George’s counties, cut off debate after about 90 minutes of impassioned pleas from both sides of the highest-profile social issue in the General Assembly this session.
Essentially, there were two competing arguments. One camp said marriage was a fundamental right for all Marylanders — regardless of sexual orientation — and the other said marriage is strictly defined as a union between a man and a woman.
“We created a separate institution of marriage between man and woman because those interests are unique and different because of their child-bearing potential,” said Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford. “This is at the core for why we have marriage and we should keep it that way.”
But the votes are not on her side. In a preliminary vote expected to be duplicated Thursday evening, the chamber voted Wednesday 25-22 in favor of the bill.
“He, in my heart, is my spouse in every sense of the word,” said openly gay Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., D-Wheaton, of his partner and the need to change the definition of marriage. “To the law, he remains a legal stranger to me.”
