MARYLAND: Marriage Backers Concerned Over "Eroding" House Support

The coming marriage equality vote in the Maryland House of Delegates is now thought to be in jeopardy due to a ferocious campaign by anti-gay Christianists. Only a couple of days ago the vote was considered to be an easy win. Lou Chibarro reports at Washington Blade:

Backers said that as of this week, the number of delegates who have publicly declared their support for the bill was just short of the 71 votes needed in the 141-member House. “There’s an effort to derail this bill like none I’ve seen before,” said gay State Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery County), the author and one of the lead sponsors of the marriage equality bill in the Senate. In a telephone news briefing on Friday, Madaleno said the mainstream media have repeatedly reported an earlier assumption that support for the bill was greater in the House than in the Senate, and approval of the measure in the Senate guaranteed its passage in the House. With opponents, including the Maryland Catholic Conference and the New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage, applying enormous pressure on wavering delegates, Madaleno and Equality Maryland officials said support in the House might be in jeopardy.

Supporters of the bill had originally planned to pass it as close to the end of the legislative session as possible in order to diminish the time available to collect petition signatures for a ballot referendum. By Maryland law, signature gathering can only begin once the governor signs the bill and must be completed by June 1st. But with support for the bill possibly eroding (one delegate has already removed his name as a cosponsor), backers are now pushing for passage as soon as possible. If the petition requirements are met in time, marriage equality (if passed) then goes on hold until the referendum.

TAKE ACTION: Maryland residents please contact your delegates immediately and urge that they maintain their support of equality.

VIDEO: As yesterday's House debate, nutjob Delegate Don Dywer, who has joined with NOM in an anti-gay robocall campaign, sat next to Maggie Gallagher and opened his testimony with a prayer that God stop the Maryland House from "redefining and destroying forever the God-ordained institution of marriage." According to Dwyer, House delegates that vote in support of same-sex marriage are subject to arrest for perjury, because saying that gay people deserve equality is a lie and they know it. Or something like that.


UPDATE: AmericaBlog reports that Dwyer is distributing materials from the SPLC-certified hate group, Mass Resistance. Here's the email he sent to his constituents.

This is Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr.

I have been fighting for many years now to keep marriage between a man and a woman as the Creator God intended. We are about to redefine the term “marriage” to include same sex marriages. Please open, print and read the attached files regarding Same Sex Marriage

PLEASE NOTE: THE EFFECTS OF SSM AND THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK ARE VERY DISTURBING BUT YOU MUST KNOW WHAT IS BEING TAUGHT TO CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

For more information on the educational agenda please click these links. http://www.massresistance.org
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/issues/kevin_jennings/index.html

Montgomery County Maryland is currently teaching homosexuality in their schools.

I NEED YOUR HELP TO WARN PARENTS AND OTHER CHURCH LEADERS

In His Service,
Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr