ANNAPOLIS – Hundreds of Marylanders camped out in the state’s Senate building on Tuesday to testify on whether Maryland should become the sixth state in the nation to recognize same-sex marriages. The crowd of attendees spilled outside the second-floor hearing room into the Senate building’s main atrium and wound down to the first floor, where another packed hearing room broadcast the live debate from upstairs. The bill would legalize same-sex marriages, while exempting religious organizations from performing or recognizing the unions. About 140 people signed up to testify on the bill.
Opponents argued that same-sex marriages are biblically prohibited and would deprive children of a stable home, while morally tainting future generations.
Senate Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs, R-Cecil and Harford counties, argued that businesses providing wedding services — not just religious institutions — should be exempt from serving same-sex couples.
“It’s not about what people do in private,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, an advocacy group for traditional marriages. “It’s about what our government is going to teach the next generation about what marriage means — the idea that a child needs a mother and father is now discarded bigotry.”
Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, rejected that argument.
“Love is love,” whether it comes from two mothers or just one, he said.
Supporters said the law is a matter of civil and financial equality in the eyes of government.
“I think it’s actually a Republican principle to believe in civil rights and equal rights,” said Sen. Allan H. Kittleman, R-Howard County, who recently resigned as Senate majority leader after he announced his support for the bill. “So I stand here as a proud Republican [supporting the bill].”
Kittleman said he signed on to the same-sex marriage bill after his efforts to legalize civil unions were thwarted.
“To be honest, I felt sometimes like Moses going across the Red Sea: by myself, with water coming this way and water coming [that] way and nobody helping,” he said.
Chrysovalantis Kefalas, deputy legal counsel to then-Gov. Bob Ehrlich from 2004 to 2007, said he considered suicide because of the shame he felt for being homosexual.
“I’m considered less of a citizen than many of you,” he told committee members.
Others argued that the state is losing same-sex wedding-related business to the District, where the unions are legal.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s counties, said he would bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote early next week. Miller, who said he would vote against the bill, is planning to round up enough support to derail an expected filibuster.
