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Anatomy of a victory

Behind the scenes of the Maryland marriage battle

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Question 6, same sex marriage, gay marriage, marriage equality, Maryland, gay news, Washington Blade

Question 6, Maryland, gay marriage, same sex marriage, marriage equality, gay news, Washington Blade

Question 6 supporters and opponents placed signs outside Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore on Nov. 6. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Edgewater, Md., residents Adri Eathorne and Kim-May Hinken arrived at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis to visit their friend, Scott Bowling, shortly before the polls closed at 8 p.m. on Election Day. The three of them nervously awaited the results of the referendum on Marylandā€™s same-sex marriage law as the slowly began to trickle in.

More than four hours later, they learned Question 6 had narrowly passed.

ā€œWe closed his hospital room door,ā€ Eathorne, who has been with Hinken nine years, says. ā€œWe closed his hospital room door so we could [yell] ā€˜Yeah!ā€™ and high-five each other and hug and kiss and cry.ā€

The passage of Question 6 by a 52-48 percent margin on Nov. 6 capped off an anxious night of waiting for the hundreds of people and dozens of reporters who had gathered at the Baltimore Soundstage.

One of Gov. Martin Oā€™Malleyā€™s staffers wrote on a napkin during lunch on Election Day that the referendum would pass with 53 percent support. Congressman Elijah Cummings made the same prediction during an interview with the Washington Blade earlier in the day outside a Northeast Baltimore polling place at which the governor, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Brendon Ayanbadejo of the Baltimore Ravens greeted voters.

ā€œI had a pretty good sense as we were heading into Election Day that it was going to hold,ā€ Oā€™Malley said in a Blade interview this week. ā€œI had a pretty good sense in the course of those last 10 days that it was on a good positive trajectory.ā€

Josh Levin, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, was backstage with the governor, Rawlings-Blake and several other elected officials watching the results come in. President Obama had already won re-election by the time Politico reported shortly before midnight that Question 6 had passed with 84 percent of precincts reporting.

Levin and others remained hesitant to declare victory because Montgomery County had yet to report election results. (Question 6 passed in the county by a 65-35 percent margin.)

ā€œOnce we figured that out then I started breathing a little more deeply,ā€ Oā€™Malley says. ā€œThen when the Montgomery County numbers came in and we were up to 51 [percent,] the night seemed to be coming into perspective. We were very reluctant to claim a victory of course until we had enough of the numbers in.ā€

Levin last week, while cleaning out Marylanders for Marriage Equalityā€™s Baltimore office, says Question 6 was leading throughout the night.

ā€œWe watched it grow to 45,000 votes or so,ā€ he says. ā€œIt shrank at one point to about 12,000. But right around midnight we felt like we had a pretty good sense of where things were. And so I went back to talk through what still could happen, whatā€™s still out, where do we think thatā€™s coming from and made the decision to go up on stage and declare victory from there.ā€

ā€œThere was confidence once the results started to come in,ā€ says gay state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County.) ā€œThere was confidence all night long, itā€™s just a matter of when do you say it. And because we had never won before, thereā€™s no desire to jinx yourself. I think youā€™re more cautious than you would have ever been.ā€

The Washington Post projected Question 6 had passed just as Oā€™Malley, Rawlings-Blake, Levin and others took to the stage to declare victory. Those gathered inside the Baltimore Soundstage became euphoric when lesbian state Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City) announced the referendum had passed. People began to cry. Gay state Dels. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) and Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery County) were among those who started dancing once the governor and other dignitaries stepped away from the podium.

Oā€™Malley instrumental in fundraising

Election Day capped off a long and often tumultuous effort for Marylandā€™s same-sex marriage advocates that began in 1997 when three state lawmakers introduced the first bill that would have allowed nuptials for gays and lesbians.

Equality Maryland, which nearly closed in June 2011, and the American Civil Liberties Union in 2004 filed a lawsuit on behalf of Lisa Polyak and Gita Deane and eight other same-sex couples and a gay widow who sought the right to marry in the state. The Maryland Court of Appeals in 2007 ultimately upheld the constitutionality of the stateā€™s ban on marriage for gays and lesbians.

State lawmakers in 2011 narrowly defeated a same-sex marriage bill, but legislators approved it in February. Oā€™Malley signed the law on March 1.

Martin O'Malley, Question 6, Maryland, election 2012, gay marriage, same sex marriage, marriage equality, gay news, Washington Blade

Governor Martin O’Malley speaks to reporters outside Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore on Nov. 6. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The governor soon emerged as the lawā€™s most prominent supporter, especially after the Maryland Marriage Alliance collected more than 160,000 signatures to force a referendum on the issue. Marylanders for Marriage Equality turned to Oā€™Malley, among others, in early August to help bolster their then-anemic fundraising efforts.

ā€œWe found ourselves in a situation where polling looked good, we felt good about what we were building, but we simply werenā€™t bringing in money at the rate that we needed to,ā€ Levin says. ā€œWe as a campaign and with our board members we sort of rang the bell a little bit and talked to the governor, got Maggie McIntosh more involved. The ACLU redoubled their efforts. And I think brought to bear all the efforts that helped us [reach] the financial goals that we needed to.ā€

Levin said in June his group could effectively defend the law with between $5-$7 million, in spite of some observers who said Marylanders for Marriage Equality needed to raise up to $12 million.

Oā€™Malley headlined a star-studded fundraiser gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman co-hosted at a New York City hotel in September that raised more than $100,000 for the pro-Question 6 group. The governor also appeared at an Oct. 2 fundraiser with D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) at gay Democratic lobbyist Steve Elmendorfā€™s Logan Circle home. Former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his wife Chan announced a $100,000 donation to Marylanders for Marriage Equality during the fundraiser that Chip DiPaula, Jr., former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, Jr.ā€™s gay chief-of-staff, attended alongside Mizeur and others.

The Human Rights Campaign contributed more than $1.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions to the pro-Question 6 campaign. Freedom to Marry, which initially declined to join the coalition defending the stateā€™s same-sex marriage law, said it invested more than $200,000 into the campaign. This figure includes the $70,000 it gave that helped Marylanders for Maryland Equality air their radio ad highlighting President Obamaā€™s support of marriage rights for same-sex couples in the days leading up to Election Day.

ā€œHRC provided so much of the backbone to this whole effort,ā€ Madaleno says. ā€œThey were absolutely critical.ā€

Marylanders for Marriage Equality ultimately raised $6 million ā€” they consistently outraised the Maryland Marriage Alliance throughout the Question 6 campaign. The ACLU and other organized labor groups contributed more than $1 million to Marylanders for Marriage Equality.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Republican hedge fund manager Paul Singer both donated $250,000 to the pro-Question 6 campaign. The bulk of the 11,000 people who contributed to Marylanders for Marriage Equality, however, live in Maryland.

ā€œWe proved from going to the state that nobody thought could win to being the second-widest margin after Maine among the four is pretty cool,ā€ Levin says. ā€œAnd I want to really say the team that was here through the legislative campaign that figured out, that believed in doing Maryland when nobody else did ā€” the leadership of folks like Sultan [Shakir] and Kevin [Nix], Rich Madaleno and Luke Clippinger and all the others.ā€

One of the proudest moments of the campaign for Levin came when Marylanders for Marriage Equality was able to counter a Maryland Marriage Alliance television ad that claimed Question 6 would force schools to teach same-sex marriage with their own ad eight hours later that featured Baltimore County teacher Pamela Gaddy. Levin showed it to McIntosh, HRC President Chad Griffin, former Oā€™Malley adviser Joe Bryce and his wife Kristen and a handful of others shortly after he arrived at a campaign fundraiser at DiPaulaā€™s home before he put it on the air on Oct. 26.

ā€œWe were ready and able to do it that fast, versus the stories that so many other folks who worked in California [on the campaign against Proposition 8] told just having to figure it out there,ā€ Levin says. ā€œThe lessons they learned they gave us and we applied. And we took a Maryland angle on it, putting up an African-American, Baltimore-area schoolteacher to just go, ā€˜Thatā€™s not true, you know.ā€™ When we looked at it a week later, their argument wasnā€™t resonating. People just werenā€™t buying it, according to our research.ā€

Obama, NAACP endorsements key

Oā€™Malley, Levin and Mizeur all noted Obamaā€™s public support of marriage rights for gays and lesbians and his endorsement of the same-sex marriage law garnered additional support among black Marylanders.

In addition to the radio ad featuring the president, Marylanders for Marriage Equality also sent a mailing that contained his and first lady Michelle Obamaā€™s statements in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples to 200,000 African-American households in the state. (Baltimore Black Pride co-chair Meredith Moise was handing out these fliers on Election Day as she spoke with voters outside a polling place at a Northeast Baltimore elementary school.)

ā€œIt was important that we echoed their support,ā€ Levin says.

The NAACPā€™s support of Question 6 and particularly television ads that featured Julian Bond, the civil rights organizationā€™s chair emeritus, and Revs. Delman Coates of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton and DontĆ© Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in Baltimore appear to have resonated with voters in the predominantly black Charm City.

Question 6 passed by a 57-43 percent margin in Baltimore City. It lost by slightly more than 4,300 votes in Prince Georgeā€™s County.

A Public Policy Polling survey in May found 55 percent of black Marylanders would vote for the law, compared to 36 percent who said they would oppose it. A Hart Research Associates survey conducted in late July found 44 percent of African-American voters would support Question 6, compared to 45 percent who said they would vote against it. A Gonzales Research poll in September noted 44 percent of black Marylanders backed marriage rights for same-sex couples, compared to 52 percent who oppose nuptials for gays and lesbians. An Associated Press exit poll indicates roughly half of black Maryland voters voted against Question 6.

Maryland Marriage Alliance Chair Derek McCoy, Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville and others who opposed the law repeatedly criticized and even mocked the NAACP, Obama, Coates, Hickman and other prominent black leaders who backed marriage rights for same-sex couples in the state. Some Question 6 opponents resorted to increasingly homophobic rhetoric during appearances at black churches and other public forums in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Pastor Luke Robinson of Quinn Chapel AME Church in Frederick even suggested during a sparsely attended rally against the same-sex marriage law at a city park on Nov. 4 that Superstorm Sandy struck New York City less than three weeks after Bloomberg donated $250,000 to Marylanders for Marriage Equality.

ā€œIt pretty clearly was having an effect,ā€ Levin says. ā€œI donā€™t think the other guys would have been bringing it up as often if it hadnā€™t been.ā€

The Maryland State Conference of the NAACP and the organizationā€™s Prince Georgeā€™s County and Baltimore branches in particular factored prominently in the pro-Question 6 campaign.

Bob Ross, president of the Prince Georgeā€™s County Branch of the NAACP, organized phone banks and canvassing efforts ahead of Election Day. He also spoke about his gay brother who had lived in the closet for years during a Nov. 5 rally at the University of Maryland in College Park that Oā€™Malley, Hoyer, Madaleno, state Sen. Allan Kittleman (R-Carroll and Howard Counties) and others attended.

ā€œSurely we need to recognize not only the importance of their endorsement, but the amount of work that they did,ā€ Levin says.

Couples busy planning weddings

With all the behind-the-scenes work that led to the passage of Question 6, the only thing that matters to those who plan to take advantage of the law once it officially takes effect on Jan. 1 is the fact they can legally marry the person they love.

ā€œIt was kind of like, ā€˜Oh my God, what are we doing about our wedding plans?ā€™ā€ says ShaDonna Jackson, a Hyattsville, Md., resident who plans to wed her partner of nearly four years, Latisha Smith. ā€œWe needed absolute certainty because itā€™s a serious matter. Itā€™s like, ā€˜Oh my goodness everything depends on this, so we need to know.ā€™ And now that we know, we are back to our wedding plans.ā€

Eathorne and Hinken, who chairs the annual Chesapeake Pride Festival, are planning to get married in Annapolis on the first day same-sex couples can legally marry in the state.

ā€œWeā€™ve waited so long for it to be legal in our home state that we really wanted to do it as soon as possible,ā€ Eathorne says (they had a church wedding in 2007). Hinken also spoke in support of the same-sex marriage bill in front of the State House in Annapolis. ā€œWe just want to make that statement. And thatā€™s one of the reasons why we want it to be ASAP. Weā€™ve been together for nine years. We donā€™t need a big full-blown wedding. We had our thing. It is special and we do plan to acknowledge it and celebrate it in some way.ā€

Madaleno, who once again proposed to his husband Mark on stage at the Baltimore Soundstage after Question 6 passed, plans to have what he describes as their ā€œrenewal of vowsā€ once they and their two children return from a family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida in January. The couple married 11 years ago at their Bethesda church, but Madaleno said having the legal recognition will make it even more official.

ā€œWhat will be different,ā€ he says, ā€œis weā€™re getting a license.ā€

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Movies

A cat and its comrades ride to adventure in breathtaking ‘Flow’

Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis directs animated fantasy adventure

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(Image courtesy of Janus Films)

Sometimes, life changes overnight, and thereā€™s nothing to do but be swept away by it, trying to navigate its currents with nothing to help you but sheer instinct and the will to survive.

Sound familiar? It should; most lives are at some point met with the challenge of facing a new personal reality when the old one unexpectedly ceases to exist. Losing a job, a home, a relationship: any of these experiences require us to adapt, often on the fly; well-laid plans fall by the wayside and the only thing that matters is surviving to meet a new challenge tomorrow.

When such catastrophes are communal, national, or even global, the stability of existence can be erased so completely that adaptation feels nearly impossible; the ā€œhitsā€ just keep on coming, and weā€™re left reeling in a constant state of panicked uncertainty. That might sound familiar, too.

If so, you likely realize that thereā€™s little comfort to be found in most of the entertainments we seek for distraction, outside of the temporary respite provided by thinking about something else for a while ā€” but there are some entertainments that can work on us in a deeper way, too, and perhaps provide us with something that feels like hope, even when we know there is no chance of returning to the world we once knew.

ā€œFlowā€ is just such an entertainment.

Directed by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis from a screenplay co-written with MatÄ«ss Kaža, this independently-produced, five-and-a-half-year-in-the-making animated fantasy adventure has become one of the most acclaimed films of 2024; debuting at Cannes in the non-competitive “Un Certain Regard” section, it won raves from international reviewers and went on to claim yearly ā€œbest ofā€ honors from numerous criticsā€™ organizations and film award bodies, including the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review. Now nominated not only for the Academyā€™s Best Animated Feature award but as Best International Feature (only the third animated movie to accomplish that feat) as well, it stands as the odds-on favorite to take home at least one of those Oscars, and possibly even both ā€” and once seen, itā€™s hard to dissent from that assessment.

Set in an unspecified time and an unknown, richly forested place, it centers its narrative ā€” which begins with breathtaking quickness, almost from the opening frames of the film ā€” on a small-ish charcoal grey cat, who wakes from its slumber to find its home rapidly disappearing under a rising tide of water. Trying to stay ahead of the flood, it finds a lifeline when it discovers an abandoned sailboat, adrift on the waves, and seeks safety on board; but the cat is not the only refugee here, and with an unlikely group of other animals ā€” a dog, a capybara, a lemur, and a secretary bird ā€” sharing the ride, the plucky feline must forge alliances with (and between) each of its shipmates if any of them are to avoid a seemingly apocalyptic fate. Faced with setbacks and challenges at every turn, the crew of unlikely comrades learns to cooperate out of shared necessity ā€” but will it be enough to keep the uncontrollable waters that surround them from becoming their final oblivion?

With no human presence in the movie ā€” though the implication that it once existed, accompanied by the inevitable suspicion that climate change is behind the mysterious flood, is ominously delivered through the monumental ruined structures and broken relics it has seemingly left behind ā€” the story unfolds without a word of dialogue, a narrative chain of events that keeps us ever-focused on the ā€œnow.ā€ The non-verbal vocalizations of its characters (each provided by authentic animal sounds rather than human impersonation) help to convey their relationships with clarity, but itā€™s the visual evocation of their sensory experiences ā€” of being trapped and at the mercy of the elements, of making an unexpected connection with another being, of enjoying a simple pleasure like a soft place to sleep ā€” that fuels this remarkable exploration of physical existence at its most raw and vulnerable. We have no way of knowing what has happened, no way of imagining what is yet to come, but such questions fade quickly into irrelevance as the story carries our attention from the immediacy of one moment into the next.

Accentuating this in-the-moment flow of ā€œFlowā€ā€” for if ever a film title could be said to summarize its style, it is surely this one ā€” is its eye-absorbing visual beauty, rendered via the open-sourced software Blender to provide an aesthetic which matches the material. These realistically-drawn animals come vividly to life against a backdrop that captures a deep connection to nature, accented with the surreal intrusions of human influence and a certain appreciation for the colorful beauty of the world around us, even at its most untamed, which hints at an indefinable mysticism; and when the story begins to transcend the expected borders of its meticulously-crafted realism, the animation takes us there so easily that we scarcely notice it has happened.

Yet transcend it does, and in so doing becomes something greater than a humble adventure tale. As the animal companions progress in their journey toward hoped-for safety, the remnants of human existence become more weathered, more ancient, and less recognizable; the natural landscape through which they are carried begins to be transformed, rendered in a more mythic light by the clash of elemental forces swirling around them and the strange encounters with other creatures that occur along their way. Whatever world this may have been, it seems rapidly to be dissolving into a cosmos where the forms of the past are being reconfigured into something new ā€” and the band of travelers, both witness to and participants in this process, cannot help but be reconfigured, too.

We canā€™t explain that further without spoilers, but we can tell you that it includes the catā€™s ability to ignore its solitary instincts and natural mistrust of its comrades in order to form a diverse (yes, we said it) and cooperative team. It also involves learning to let go of things that can no longer help, to be open to new possibilities that might, and perhaps most importantly, to surrender without fear to the ā€œflowā€ and trust that it will eventually take you where you need to go, as long as you can manage to stay afloat until you get there.

Zilbalodisā€™s film is an immersive ride, full of visceral and frequently harrowing moments that may produce some anxiety (especially for those who hate seeing animals in peril) and conceptual shifts that may challenge your expectations ā€” but it is a ride well worth taking. More than merely a fantastical ā€œNoahā€™s Arkā€ fable reimagined for an environmentally conscious age, it just might offer the timely catharsis many of us need to confront our unknowable future with a renewed sense of possibility.
ā€œFlowā€ begins streaming on Max on Feb. 14.

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Out & About

Celebrate Aquarius season with drag

SADBrunch holds event at Throw Social

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Cake Pop! hosts the brunch at Throw Social on Sunday. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

SADBrunch will host ā€œDrag Brunchā€ on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 12 p.m. at Throw Social.

Grab your friends & family, your mimosa, a plate full of food, and join us for Drag Brunch. Five flocking fabulous queens take to the stage to perform in this sassy, extravagant, fantabulous event. Tickets start at $25 and are available on Eventbrite.Ā 

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Out & About

Being single doesnā€™t mean you have to be alone this Valentineā€™s Day!

Casa De LGBT hosts speed dating event

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(Image by kotoffei/Bigstock)

Casa De LGBT will host ā€œGay, DL, Transgender Speed Datingā€ on Friday, Feb. 14 at 8:00p.m. at 1406 N. Capitol St. NW. 

This will be a night of speed dating, deep connections, and good vibes! Whether you’re gay, lesbian, transgender, or queer, this event is designed to bring people together in a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment Come ready to connect, have fun, and maybe even meet someone special. Tickets cost $30 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

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