In Brief

Staff Reports

Joint Maryland House Committees Vote 25-18 To Advance Same Sex Marriage Bill For Floor Vote

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND -- Maryland's Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's bill to allow same sex unions was approved in a joint 25-18 vote by the House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee and the Health and Government Operations Committee Tuesday making it possible for the Free State to becoming the eighth state to legalize same sex nuptials.

A spokesperson for the Governor told LGBTQNation Tuesday afternoon after the panels had voted that although O'Malley's legislation is expected to go to the full House for a floor vote on Wednesday, she indicated that supporters weren't positive that there were the 71 votes needed for passage. The Governor would be meeting in private to shore up support for the bill including a meeting with Montgomery County Delegate Sam Arora, a Democrat who had abstained, whose vote is deemed critical to the bill's passage.

A moment of surprise came when Republican delegate Robert Costa lent his support and voted yes although Delegate Costa was quick to point out that although he personally opposes same sex marriages, he believes that "government should not be involved with determining how two people chose to live," adding,"This is between and individual and god."

Governor O'Malley told reporters after the vote he had lobbied hard support for the measure and needed only a handful of extra votes to secure passage this year.

The Maryland Senate, which passed the bill last year, was expected to consider the measure as early as Friday, said Senator Brian Frosh, head of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

The Maryland committee's vote came one day after Washington became the seventh state to legalize same sex marriage, although that law will not take effect until June 7th at the earliest. Last week, the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals declared a voter-approved same-sex marriage ban in California unconstitutional. Opponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland have threatened a ballot initiative to overturn the measure should it pass the state's legislature and is signed into law as promised by the governor.

Clay Aiken: Proposed NC Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment "Goes Too Far."

Clay Aiken

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- North Carolina native, singer Clay Aiken loves his home state but is deeply unhappy about proposed amendment to the North Carolina constitution that would ban same sex marriages. The former American Idol contestant spoke out about the amendment in a video posted to YouTube Monday. "Families looks different. They have always looked different. You have single-parent families, families with parents of different races, families with parents of different religions," he said in the video. "No matter what we want a family to look like, we can't put into a constitution – a document that is supposed to protect our rights – one narrow definition." Aiken, who is openly gay was featured in the video for the group Protect All N.C. Families. The amendment, which will appear on May's primary ballot, would define marriage as being between one man and one woman and outlaw civil unions.

The singer, who is also a parent of a son, said the amendment will harm children of LGBTQ families;

"I think an amendment like this goes way too far," he said. "It will take away protections from kids who, right now, may have access to healthcare because one of their parents has healthcare at work." 

One of the leading proponents of the amendment, Raleigh pastor Patrick L. Wooden, anti-gay activist who has made a series of virulently anti-gay statements claiming for example that older gay men have to wear diapers after a lifetime of shoving a variety of objects and animals up their anuses, appeared recently on anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera's Americans For Truth About Homosexuality Radio Hour, where he told LaBarbera the Bible defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. "We just believe that the definition should be redefined in the state of North Carolina," he said. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast without a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, but same sex marriage is against the law already. Wooden said that giving the Bible's definition of marriage constitutional protection is the "will of the people."

According to a poll published last September by Elon University poll published in September, 56-percent of North Carolina residents oppose the amendment.

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