Quote

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

11 March 2011

Md. House effectively kills same-sex marriage bill

The Maryland House of Delegates has voted to effectively kill a bill for the year that would have allowed same-sex marriage in Maryland.

The House approved on voice vote a motion to send the bill back to the Judiciary Committee, an acknowledgment by supporters that it did not have sufficient votes to pass on the floor.

The bill cleared the Senate two weeks ago on a 25-to-21 vote, and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) had pledged to sign it.

Advocates for the bill had hoped Maryland would join five other states and the District in allowing same-sex marriages. The bill had significant momentum coming out of the Senate but ran into resistance in the Democat-led House from African-American lawmakers from Prince George's County, who cited religious opposition in their districts, and conservative Democrats in Southern Maryland and the Baltimore suburbs.

No comments:

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I have posted it here in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, and so on. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.