Maryland Same Gender Marriage Bill Derailed

Wow..the same gender marriage bill in Maryland got derailed before it even left the Legislature.

I was expecting it to pass and have to face a referendum, but the shocking news out of Annapolis is that the bill has been sent to committee where it will probably die.   With 2012 being an election year, I don't realistically see it coming back up until 2013.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) had this to say about what happened

“It is my firm belief that equality under the law means equality for everyone, and our laws should reflect that fundamental principle. Together, we’ve worked hard to protect and expand these rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens in our state.  It was my hope to sign a marriage equality act consistent with these progressive reforms, while protecting religious freedom in our state.   
“As One Maryland we must work together to respect the dignity of every individual.  I remain committed to working with all Marylanders to ensure that rights are protected for equally for everyone.”

Governor, can you tell Del. Pena-Melnyk and (In)Equality Maryland that a trans rights bill without public accommodations language is an affront to the dignity of trans Marylanders, not respecting it?

So what are the peeps at (In)Equality Maryland going to do now that they have plenty of time on their hands to correct that travesty of a trans rights bill percolating through the Maryland legislature?

Stay turned to the next exciting chapter of 'As Maryland TBLG Rights Turns'

New York City Adopts Equal Access Policy For Marriage Licenses For Trans People

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced that the city of New York has adopted a new policy that took effect on February 7, 2011 that ensures trans people equal access to marriage licenses.

Transpeople in New York City have had issues interacting with the City Clerk's office when trying to obtain marriage licenses.   There was the highly publicized case of Jason Stenson and transwoman Kimah Nelson who legally obtained a marriage license, were married ten days after doing so on May 26, 2009 but when news broke that Kimah was trans the license was retroactively revoked.

A few months later in December 2009 a trans couple who wishes to remain anonymous tried to get married in the Bronx    According to TLDEF they fulfilled the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification – the only identification required by the City Clerk’s office.  Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married – something not required of other marriage license applicants.

In order to settle legal action, under the terms of the new policy, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex.  Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering  the applicant's appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.

The City Clerk also apologized to Jane and John as well and initiated training for all city clerks so that the new policies can be properly implemented.

And thanks to TLDEF for all their work in ensuring fair treatment of transpeople who seek to get married, and Jane and John for being tough minded enough to fight the injustice
.

Joanne Cassar Malta Marriage Case Update

Been continuing to track the developments in the Joanne Cassar case for you TransGriot readers.

To bring y'all up to speed on this case, she's the Maltese transwoman who has been fighting a protracted battle for several years to preserve her marriage rights.  She has won and lost at various levels of the Maltese court system and we celebrated when she got another favorable ruling back in December.    

But alas, the Malta AG decided to appeal Cassar's latest win, so the battle continues.   Cassar has made it clear that she intends to fight this all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France if necessary.

But its been bittersweet for her because the scrutiny from the case broke up her relationship with the man she was going to marry..

In the wake of her legal win, a Maltese MP filed legislation allowing for administrative gender changes. 

The latest news is that Cassar's attorneys Jose Herrera and David Camilleri have filed submission responding to the Malta AG, and referenced the Christine Goodwin vs. UK case in which the European court ruled that the state could not prevent transpeople from getting married.

The decision is supposed to be announced in May.   I would strongly suggest we say our prayers and keep our fingers crossed for Cassar that she wins another round in favor of her marriage rights. 

Marriage Train Wreck In Maryland?

When marriage equality is put to a referendum vote, it has NEVER won.    Currently that losing streak is at 31 straight losses after the last referenda loss in Maine in 2009.

Now the 'all gay marriage all the time' forces have focused their attention and efforts on Maryland.

It has Democratic majorities in both chambers of its legislature and a Democratic governor willing to sign a bill into law if it passes.  It also has a law on the books that allows referenda to repeal laws as well.

While the momentum is building for this bill to pass, the anti-marriage forces are banking on their tried and true tactics of forcing a referendum and lying through their teeth to carry the day again and kill it..

They're probably printing the signature gathering petitions or already have them ready to go to force the aforementioned referendum as I compose this post right now..

If that marriage referendum does happen, the Equality Maryland folks have a daunting task.   One thing in their favor is that Maryland trails only the four majority-minority states of Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas in terms of percentage of non white population.   66% of Maryland's population is White and 4% of it is Asian. 

There is however a 30% chunk of it made up of African-Americans spread across the state and the last time we checked, the relationship between the African-American and gay community has been rather testy since 2008.

The African American community hasn't exactly been happy about, nor have we forgotten the anti Black  bigotry that broke out in the gay community in the wake of the 2008 Prop 8 loss.    There's also the perception in the African American community that the gay community has repeatedly disrespected a very popular in the Black community President Obama. 


So should it come down to a referendum the EQ Maryland folks are facing trying to get a plurality of African Americans to vote with them on this issue when they've done little outreach with a community that has issues with them and will be trying to do so with predominately white spokespeople.

And the anti marriage people will try to exploit that weakness. 



And oh, did I forget to mention a certain anti-gay minister that's down in Beltsville with a large megachurch?

Bigot Harry Jackson, Jr is lying low right now, but you can bet your last paycheck he will be deployed soon enough to lead the charge of the anti-marriage haters.

As of right now, judging by how they're botching the trans rights bill, EQ MD isn't showing that they can build the multicultural coalition it will take to win a marriage referendum here

And if they lose it, the last thing I want to hear is that BS I heard in the wake of the 2008 California loss .

This African-American community, especially in Prince George's County is middle to upper middle class and highly educated, but in Baltimore County and Baltimore city is middle to low income.

You'd better get busy talking to peeps right now and especially the National Black Justice Coalition.   It doesn't take an MIT grad to realize that the African American community is probably going to be the decisive vote in any Maryland referenda battle. 


0-31 is the record, but all losing streaks must come to an end sooner or later.   Will Maryland be the place where that happens, or will we see another same gender marriage freight train that passed the law but got  derailed at the ballot box?