Marriage equality bill to move quickly through Maryland Senate

February 20, 2012

By Jacob Combs

The Washington Post reports that the Maryland Senate plans to take quick action on the marriage equality bill that passed the House of Delegates last week.  From the Post:

A Maryland Senate committee could vote on same-sex marriage as early as Tuesday, setting the stage for the legislation to get to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s desk by the end of the week.

Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said in an interview Sunday that his panel will vote “quickly”on the gay nuptials bill that narrowly cleared the House of Delegates on Friday night.

A vote Tuesday would allow the bill sponsored by O’Malley (D) to be passed on the Senate floor this week, Frosh said. If there are delays, he expects a full Senate vote by early next week.

Last year, 25 Senators voted in favor of marriage equality.  This year, opponents could attempt to filibuster the legislation, which would take 29 votes to break or, like last year, Senate President Thomas Mike Miller could head off a filibuster despite the fact that he personally opposes the bill.

Filed under: Marriage equality

3 Comments Leave a Comment

  • 1. H8NSBAD  |  February 20, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    Once passed the nastiness of referendum begins and it is uglier now. This just happened with the Dream Act that was passed and will now be on the ballot in November here in Maryland. The opposition sponsers are now able to link a website (in that case MDPETITIONS.COM) to the state voter registry and apparently can pre-print everything needed on the petition minus the signature with the effect of a virtually guaranteed match of name, registered voting address, etc. The only problem is that this pre-printing clearly violates the law that this information can only be filled out with the expressed permission of the signer. I am also not so thrilled that someone can access my voting information without my expressed consent. I intend to download the petition for my street with info filled in, have it notarized blank along with statements from my neighbors that there was no advanced consent granted and send it to our SAG. There is also an effort underfoot to legislatively supress the details/names of a certified referendum petition (just like Washington State). Here is the verbatim of the current law: http://www.elections.state.md.us/pdf/6-201-3A.pdf Get ready for a bumpy ride!

  • 2. Ann S.  |  February 20, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    @

  • 3. Prop 8 Trial Tracker &raq&hellip  |  February 21, 2012 at 9:02 am

    [...] there is still room for more successes.  As Maryland prepares to pass its marriage equality bill late this week or early next week, it’s time to focus more on Rhode Island and to pressure lawmakers there [...]

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