Anti-gay Del. Don Dwyer (R-Prince Willliam)
Equality Maryland prepares for November battle at ballot box
Brauchli to replace oft-criticized Downie in September
Gay couples close to ‘legal parity with marriage under law’
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JOE CREA
Friday, January 07, 2005
On the eve of the 2005 Maryland General Assembly session, gay Del. Rich Madaleno
(D-Montgomery County) said that a bill to add sexual orientation to the state’s
hate crime statute would pass “easily and quickly,” but a version
that includes gender identity and expression “is a step too far for many”
in the state Senate.
“As a result we aren’t going to get anything passed,” Madaleno
said. “I would like to make progress, no matter what the issue is. I’ll
take 50 percent and declare the day partly sunny rather than fight for the total
victory and get nothing.”
Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, a statewide gay rights
group, said his group would only support a bill that “unequivocally includes
the transgender community.”
Madaleno argued that an assailant would target a transgendered person because
they assume the victim to be gay, not transgendered.
“Our community may understand the difference but to the uniformed perpetrator
of the hate crime, there is no difference,” Madaleno said. “If someone
beats up a person because they thought they were Jewish and they turned out
not to be Jewish, well, isn’t that still a hate crime?”
Madaleno said he has asked the state’s attorney general whether a hate
crime law inclusive of sexual orientation would be enough to cover gender identity.
He said that the attorney general thought that adding just sexual orientation
to the state’s hate crime statute would protect transgendered people,
especially if the law enacted protections based on “real or perceived
sexual orientation.”
“I would argue that we could come up with a bill that is inclusive, without
the word,” Madaleno said.
Furmansky disagreed with Madaleno’s assessment.
“We don’t want to leave that open to interpretation,” Furmansky
said. “If it is true that sexual orientation can be interpreted in such
a way, then at the very least that language [‘real or perceived’]
should be included in the bill. To not do so would be an egregious error.”
Anthony McCarthy, a gay political commentator for WYPR radio in Maryland, said
that lawmakers have been “explicitly honest” about how far the state
is willing to progress on gay rights and that they aren’t ready to add
gender identity and expression to the state’s hate crime statute.
But he said it would be wrong to support any hate crime legislation that does
not include transgendered people.
“It would be a real mistake for our community,” McCarthy said.
“It’s been a horrible message to the transgender community about
how serious we take acts of violence against that community.
“Most of the hate crimes cases that I’m aware of in Maryland are
against transgender people. For us to support hate crimes penalties without
understanding the full breadth would be a real mistake.”
Invigorated by an ACLU lawsuit challenging Maryland’s prohibition on gay
marriage, opponents of marital rights for same-sex couples expect thousands
of residents and religious leaders to gather in Annapolis on Jan. 27 to defend
“our families, our children and our civil society.”
Del. Donald Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) has spearheaded the rally and efforts to
protect traditional marriage in Maryland. The rally is designed to enlist the
support of Maryland church leaders who, according to the Web site DefendMarylandMarriage.com,
need to “be exposed to the vile and militaristic agenda of the homosexual
activist and that they are exposed to their intent to sodomize our children.”
The Web site is owned and operated by Lure Music, Inc., of Ellicott City, Md.
Dwyer and other opponents of equal marriage rights plan to pressure the Maryland
General Assembly to adopt an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state’s
constitution this year.
Two attempts to strengthen Maryland’s existing ban on same-sex marriage
were defeated by large margins during the 2004 legislative session.
But those defeats came before the ACLU announced Deane vs. Conaway, the lawsuit
filed in Baltimore City Court in July on behalf of nine same-sex couples and
a man whose partner recently died. The lawsuit was filed with the cooperation
of Equality Maryland and a hearing is scheduled in Baltimore Circuit Court on
March 14.
Madaleno said he does not think there is much of a chance that an amendment
banning gay marriage could pass the General Assembly.
“The reality is that the only way to get an amendment on the ballot is
to go through the General Assembly. We don’t have a ballot initiative
process,” Madaleno said. “So, why would a Democrat-controlled legislature
put a question on the ballot that would only help Republicans? It doesn’t
make any sense. I don’t think there’s going to be any desire to
move forward with an amendment.”
McCarthy said that the effort to thwart an amendment this year is more complicated
because of the ACLU’s suit. Additionally, gay marriage opponents have
been successful in setting the tone for the same-sex marriage debate across
the country, he said.
“I think that while Maryland is more progressive than some of our Midwestern
states, the gay marriage debate still has had a real resonance with Maryland
lawmakers,” McCarthy said.
He added that the chances of defeating an anti-gay amendment in the House are
greater than they would be in the Senate.
Dwyer, who did not respond to Blade inquiries, has emerged as a leading figure
in the fight against gay marriage in Maryland since the ACLU lawsuit was filed
last summer.
Last year, Dwyer and several other lawmakers sought to join the City of Baltimore
and other counties to thwart the ACLU lawsuit but Baltimore Circuit Court Judge
M. Brooke Murdoch rejected that motion. Officials expect the ruling to be challenged.
Equality Maryland strongly criticized Dwyer in December after he spread inaccurate
information in an e-mail to pastors on Dec. 1, Furmansky said. In response to
the marriage lawsuit, Dwyer — who sits on Maryland’s House Judiciary
Committee — wrote, “if successful, the courts will demand that you
marry same-sex individuals by law in your church.”
Furmansky dismissed Dwyer’s claims.
“Delegate Dwyer is relying on a campaign of vile rhetoric and misinformation
to rally supporters to his side,” Furmansky said. “In addition to
telling clergy that courts will force them to marry same-sex couples by law,
Delegate Dwyer is also a lead sponsor of a Web site that states gays intend
to sodomize children. Clearly, this is not a person who is right in the head.”
To counter Dwyer’s rally, Furmansky said Equality Maryland plans to hold
its own rally on the afternoon of Jan. 27. Furmansky added that his group will
work with the National Organization for Women’s Maryland chapter to stage
a legislative briefing in January on gay and lesbian issues. The group will
also hold its legislative day on Valentine’s Day.
Dwyer, a Glen Burnie Republican, is a controversial figure in Annapolis. Elected
to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2003, Dwyer brought the controversial
Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was ousted
in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state’s
judiciary, to Annapolis for a rally last year.
Dwyer also faced criticism after e-mailing colleagues in both the House and
Senate a paper written by his eighth grade nephew, Alex Dwyer, arguing that
Islam is “a militaristic and violent religion.”
Furmansky said that the Medical Decision Making Act, which would establish a
domestic partner registry and offer medical decision-making rights for unmarried
couples will be reintroduced during the 2005 session. The measure passed the
House last year but was killed in committee in the Senate.
Furmansky said several other pro-gay bills are expected to be introduced this
session, including a measure to offer health insurance to gay partners of state
employees. Another bill is expected to address transfer and recordation taxes
and eliminate the taxes gays have to pay when a partner is added to a deed.
Furmansky said he could not confirm who would sponsor the various bills.
McCarthy said the Medical Decision Making Act “is still a very difficult
sell in this legislature,” noting that it faces obstacles in the Senate.
“This legislature is just not amenable to moving much further on issues
of discrimination of gays and lesbians,” McCarthy said.
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