The executive director of Equality Maryland said although state lawmakers didn’t act this year on two LGBT priorities, progress was made in the recently ended legislative session.

Morgan Meneses-Sheets talked with DC Agenda about that progress, this year’s biggest accomplishments and disappointments and the work that remains to be done.

DC Agenda: You just experienced your first Maryland General Assembly session as executive director. What are your thoughts regarding the process?

Morgan Meneses-Sheets: While we are disappointed that our two key priorities — marriage equality and gender identity anti-discrimination — did not move this year, we have made progress. We knew going into the 2010 session that it was a building year. The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act gained four new co-sponsors in the General Assembly, including the chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where the bill is heard in the State Senate. …

The Gender Identity & Expression Anti-Discrimination Act gained four new co-sponsors from key geographic areas across the state. For the first time, the Maryland AFL-CIO came out in support of the gender identity bill and testified at the hearings. This is a big move forward in terms of our relationships with the labor community. We also had a wide range of coalition partners standing with us on these bills and other proactive efforts.

We are also pleased that we were successful in halting a large number of bills aimed at rolling back our rights, including bills to invalidate out-of-state [marriage] licenses, bills to halt state agencies from honoring out-of-state licenses and constitutional amendments that could have not only eliminated future access to civil marriage, but also prevented any type of recognition, including the many partnership protections that we won in the past, including medical decision making, the inheritance tax exemption and hospital visitation.

DC Agenda: What do you see as your major accomplishment and what was your biggest disappointment during the session?

Meneses-Sheets: It was a busy session. We worked hard to continue to build momentum and prevent setbacks. We organized successful hearings, had a large lobby day turnout, generated media attention, engaged activists and lobbied legislators, mobilized new activists, held legislative briefings and identified new coalition partners. We are in a stronger position than at the start of the session and that in itself is truly a major accomplishment. …

For me, the biggest disappointment was the turn of events around the de facto parent bill. This bill provides an individual who has served in a parental role with a minor child with the duties and obligations, as well as the protections of being viewed as a de facto parent by judicial determination. An individual must satisfy a set of standards to be granted de facto parent status in order to be granted the right to request custody and visitation. …

Children deserve the continuity and security of having lasting relationships with those who parent them. Sadly, this bill never had a chance because our opponents [acted] to twist a procedural rule to forward their anti-gay agenda on the back of this bill. We were warned that because marriage is under Family Law and custody is under Family Law that they would have the ability to add an amendment to this bill that would prevent the recognition of the [state] attorney general’s opinion [recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages]. We were concerned that they might have the votes in committee to do so. We had also heard threats that they would try to wage a nasty battle on the floor to strip protections for same-sex couples. We talked with our sponsors and in the end had to agree to pull the bill.

This is a truly sad example of how the political process can work at times. It is also yet another example of anti-gay extremists ignoring their own pleas for family values when they ignore the needs of our families and our children in order to advance their personal agendas.

DC Agenda: By the end of 2010, we will have completed four years with a Democratic governor and a majority of Democrats in the General Assembly. But other than adding names as co-sponsors, the bills to provide transgender protections and marriage equality have not advanced out of committee. Why should the next four years be any different?

Meneses-Sheets: A great deal of progress has been made in the past four years. We expanded protections available to LGBT couples, including statutes to protect hospital visitation and medical decision-making and a repeal of the inheritance tax for domestic partners. We beat back efforts to repeal rights for transgender residents of Montgomery County. We also successfully fought back each and every attempt to set us back. There are many states where that is not the case. This in itself is something to celebrate. We continue to gain ground in Maryland in our efforts to create true and lasting equality.

Adding new co-sponsors is an important endeavor. These are people signing their name on the dotted line and committing to stand with us when these important issues come up for a vote. This is also proof of the ever-increasing momentum behind equality not only here in Maryland, but throughout the country. … The next four years can and should hold much more for the LGBT community.