Heather R. Mizeur: In search of marriage equality for all

The cities of Pasadena, Md. and Pasadena, Calif. don't have much in common, despite sharing a name. One is several miles south of Baltimore; the other is just outside Los Angeles. The leaves are changing colors here, but palm trees are green all year-round. The sun rises over our Chesapeake Bay, and sets over their Pacific Ocean.

But for my spouse, Deborah, and me, there's one really significant difference: California calls us a married couple; Maryland doesn't. Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler can change that for many thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families as his office examines whether the Free State should recognize all legal marriages performed in other states.

Last summer, we got a marriage license on the West Coast almost three years after our wedding on the western shore of the Chesapeake because we wanted to protect each other should tragedy strike on one of our trips to visit family there. Back at home in Maryland, our protections are fewer and weaker.

Maryland has made important strides for LGBT families. With Gov. Martin O'Malley's leadership, Deborah now qualifies for my state employee insurance policy. In the General Assembly, we enacted laws to allow domestic partners hospital visitation and medical decision-making rights and to improve policies on real estate transfer and inheritance taxes.

But thus far, we have inched toward marriage equality one provision at a time. This has earned us about a dozen — just a dozen! — of the 425 statutory state protections marriage confers in Maryland. Though our state will inevitably grant full equality, we shouldn't have to wage 400 more campaigns over many years to piece together these protections.

Inevitability might seem a counterintuitive argument to make this week, after Maine voters joined California's in rejecting a law that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry. But Gallup polls have showed a steady trend towards public support for equality, and within a year, there's a strong possibility that the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey will join Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Iowa in extending marriage equality to LGBT families. Remember that a decade ago, these advances were unthinkable.

It's time for Maryland to stop lagging behind and become a leader again. At the beginning of the summer, the attorney general's office began researching and readying a legal opinion on whether Maryland could recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses. Our community anticipates a decision any day, and the legal evidence is strongly in our favor.

Maryland enacted a law in 1973 that prevents Deborah and me from receiving a marriage license here. No statute, however, forbids recognizing valid out-of-state same-sex marriages, and the General Assembly has rejected several attempts at such a law.

Even more significantly, our courts have found on numerous occasions that couples validly married elsewhere are eligible for protections in Maryland. More than just assuring benefits, these rulings clarify that the promises married couples make to each other — obligations for mutual support and dependence — are bound not merely in our hearts, but also in the laws of our state.

With non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation, domestic partner benefits for state and many county employees, enhanced penalties for hate crimes against LGBT individuals, and many other recognitions for same-sex couples, Maryland has established a clear record. The next step should make the marriage between Deborah and I just as valid in our Pasadena as it is in California's.

The Gazette - Friday, November 6, 2009 http://www.gazette.net/stories/11062009/policol161708_32526.shtml