Maryland
Md. attorney general candidates highlight LGBTQ rights support
Primary to take place on July 19
Candidates who hope to succeed Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh will face off in the July 19 primary. Here are there positions on LGBTQ rights.
DEMOCRATS:
ANTHONY BROWN
Anthony Brown (Washington Blade file photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Anthony Brown is a Democrat running for Maryland Attorney General.
Brown currently represents Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties in the U.S. House of Representatives. As attorney general, Brown has promised to fight for LGBTQ rights, and as he explained to the Washington Blade in a written statement, the issue is close to home.
“As the proud father of a trans son, I understand the challenges facing the LGBTQIA+ community and the importance of leadership at every level ready to fight for their rights,” Brown wrote. “I’m running for attorney general to tear down these barriers for all Marylanders, no matter who you are or who you love.”
Brown backed Maryland’s marriage equality and trans rights laws when he was the state’s lieutenant governor from 2007-2015. Brown as a member of Congress fought the previous administration’s efforts to ban trans servicemembers from the military.
“I’ll bring my decades of experience as a lawyer, legislator and executive to not only defend LGBTQ+ Marylanders’ rights in court but push forward real change in Annapolis,” Brown said. “True allyship must go beyond words and acknowledgment and include action.”
KATIE CURRAN O’MALLEY
Katie Curran O’Malley (Photo courtesy of O’Malley’s campaign)
Katie Curran O’Malley is running against Brown in the primary.
She served as an associate judge on the Baltimore City District Court from 2001-2021 and was the Baltimore County Assistant State’s Attorney prior to that appointment. O’Malley’s husband is former Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Katie O’Malley was born and raised in Baltimore. Her father, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., was Maryland’s attorney general from 1987-2007. If elected, Katie O’Malley would be the state’s first female attorney general.
In a written statement to the Blade, Katie O’Malley expressed her strong support for LGBTQ rights and included an action plan for LGBTQ advocacy as attorney general.
“Over the course of the last 20 years there have been extraordinary advancements in the field of LGBTQ+ rights. However, these advancements have neither been sufficient nor are fully secured,” she wrote. “Maryland needs an attorney general that is a tenacious, relentless and inspired advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. Throughout my career, I have been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and my support of same-sex marriage’s passage in 2011 is one of my proudest moments. I was proud to call out the moral cowardice then, and I will be proud to rebuke intolerance towards the LGBTQ+ community as attorney general.”
REPUBLICANS:
MICHAEL PEROUTKA
Michael Peroutka (Photo courtesy of Peroutka)
Michael Peroutka is a Republican running for attorney general.
He represented District 5 on the Anne Arundel County Council from 2014-2018.
Peroutka during his 2014 campaign posted a video arguing that the Maryland General Assembly had lost is validity after passing legislation — the marriage equality and trans rights bills, an assault weapons ban and a a stormwater runoff contamination bill — that “violated God’s law.” Peroutka also refused to disavow ties to the League of the South, an anti-gay, pro-successionist group.
Peroutka’s current campaign website does not have specific information about his stance on LGBTQ rights.
In 2017, Peroutka’s political operatives were found guilty of violating Maryland’s election laws, after making robocalls against Peroutka’s gay opponent for the District 5 council seat.
Peroutka’s campaign did not respond to the Blade’s request for comment.
JIM SHALLECK
Jim Shalleck (Screen capture via YouTube)
Jim Shalleck is running against Peroutka in the July 19 primary.
Shalleck was previously the president of the Montgomery Board of Elections. The former local, state and federal prosecutor’s campaign platform centers on cracking down on violent campaign crime. Shalleck’s campaign platform centers on cracking down on violent crime, and his campaign website does not have information concerning his stance on LGBTQ rights.
Shalleck could not be reached for comment.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed a bill that decriminalizes HIV in the state.
State Dels. Kris Fair (D-Frederick County) and Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) are among the lawmakers who sponsored House Bill 39 or the Carlton R. Smith Act, which is named after the long-time activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in May 2024.
Smith was a member of the Coalition to Decriminalize HIV in Maryland that advocated for the bill. FreeState Justice, a statewide LGBTQ rights group, was also part of the coalition.
“At FreeState Justice, we are proud to stand with advocates, health experts, and lawmakers who worked diligently to advance this bill. The bipartisan support for the Carlton R. Smith Act is a testament to the power of education, research, and courageous leadership,” said FreeState Justice Executive Director Phillip Westry in a statement. “It sends a clear message: Maryland is committed to evidence-based policymaking and to ending the criminalization of people living with HIV. We honor the memory of Carlton R. Smith by continuing the work of building a more just, inclusive, and informed society.”
Maryland is the fifth state to decriminalize HIV.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican, in March signed a bill that decriminalized HIV in his state.
Maryland
A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center
Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump
BY WESLEY CASE | Tavish Forsyth had come to a conclusion: They could not work for President Donald Trump.
So the 32-year-old Baltimore resident stripped down, turned on their camera, and lit their career on fire.
“F—— Donald Trump and f—— the Kennedy Center,” a naked Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, which is run by the Kennedy Center, said in a video that went viral. The board of the nation’s leading cultural institution had elected Trump just weeks prior as its chairman after he gutted the board of members appointed by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Md. schools plan to comply with federal DEI demands
Superintendents opt for cooperation over confrontation
By LIZ BOWIE | Deciding not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, Maryland school leaders plan to sign a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says their school districts are complying with all civil rights laws.
The two-paragraph letter could deflect a confrontation over whether the state’s public schools run diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the Trump administration has called illegal. The Baltimore Banner reviewed the letter, which was shared by a school administrator who declined to be identified because the letter has not yet been sent.
Maryland school leaders are taking a more conciliatory approach than those in some other states. Education leaders in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin said they will not comply with the federal education department’s order, the demands of which, they say, are based on a warped interpretation of civil rights law.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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