Maryland's state legislature has passed bills extending some rights to
homosexuals. One allows same-sex couples to have medical decision-making rights analagous to those given to spouses. The other expands the state's hate crimes law to include sexual orientation in its protections.
The Republican governor hasn't given any indication as to whether he'll sign either one, and I'd bet against it. The fact that they passed both houses of the General Assembly by fairly healthy margins is encouraging. Maryland traditionally votes for Democratic presidential candidates, and until recently, governors. But I looked at the election map after the 2004 vote, and only the suburbs around Washington D.C. and the urban area of Baltimore is significantly blue. The rest of the state is as red as Kansas.
(more below the fold)
Anyway, the passage of the bills looks to be a vote on the side of compassion. You don't have to be gay to support the rights of gay people to be treated like human beings.
But look at this, from the article linked above:
House Minority Whip Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert) called creation of the registry "a sweeping change" and said he feared it would "chip away at the traditional institution of marriage" and "rip families apart."
Leave it to the wingnuts to provide the requisite WTF comment. How in the bloody hell will giving a same-sex couple the same rights as spouses when one is ill "rip families apart?" It boggles the mind.
I wrote to Rep. O'Donnell asking that question. If he answers, I'll report it. Meanwhile, you might ask him yourself: Anthony_ODonnell@house.state.md.us