Local
Marriage bill stalled by ‘holdout’ lawmaker
O’Malley reiterates support, lobbies Md. delegates
Maryland House of Delegates member Tiffany Alston (D-Prince George’s County), one of two lawmakers who failed to show up for an expected committee vote Tuesday on a same-sex marriage bill, said she is now ready to vote on the bill, raising hope among supporters that the legislation would be approved by the committee late this week.
But Del. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City), who joined Alston in boycotting the marriage bill vote as a means of promoting at least two unrelated bills stalled in the legislature, continued to withhold her vote on the marriage measure as of late Wednesday. Her action drew attention to the fragile coalition of lawmakers that LGBT advocates must rely on to enact same-sex marriage in Maryland.
Carter and Alston stunned backers of the Civil Marriage Protection Act on Tuesday morning by staying away from a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in which a vote on the marriage bill was scheduled to take place, and announced they would not vote on the measure until Democratic leaders pay more attention to other issues they feel are equally important.
Both Carter and Alston are co-sponsors of the marriage bill. And due to the close division of committee members on the bill, their votes are needed to secure the committee’s approval of the bill to enable it to reach the House floor for a final vote.
Carter told the Baltimore Sun that Alston joined her in staying away from what had been expected to be a committee vote in favor of the same-sex marriage bill as a means of gaining “leverage” for other, unrelated issues such as restoring proposed cuts in school funding in their respective districts.
Backers of the Civil Marriage Protection Act have only enough support on the committee to pass the bill by a one-vote margin. Carter noted that it’s still relatively early in the legislative session and other bills, in addition to the marriage bill, should be placed on the fast track.
Meanwhile, Gov. Martin O’Malley reiterated his support on Tuesday for the marriage bill, repeating his commitment to sign it if it reaches his desk.
“The governor has committed to signing the bill,” said O’Malley spokesperson Shaun Adamec. “His personal support is for full equality for same-sex couples as is enjoyed by heterosexual couples. Regardless of the label the General Assembly puts on it, the governor’s objective is to achieve equality.”
Adamec said that O’Malley has been involved in lobbying for the marriage bill and has “made phone calls in support of the bill.” O’Malley has stopped short of saying he supports marriage equality. His lieutenant governor and attorney general have both publicly endorsed full marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Del. Joseph Vallario (D-Prince George’s County), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, responded to Carter and Alston’s ’protest’ action by rescheduling the vote on the marriage bill for later in the day on Tuesday, after the committee held a public hearing on as many as 16 other bills.
But at the end of the committee’s session, Carter made it known she was not ready to vote for the bill, even though she said she supports it. Vallario said he would assess the situation on Wednesday to determine when to schedule a vote on the marriage measure.
Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), a member of the committee who is gay, said Wednesday that Vallario tentatively set a committee voting session for Thursday afternoon. However, Clippinger said it was unclear whether the voting session would take place since Carter had yet to say whether she would attend.
Supporters of the marriage bill, which passed in the Maryland Senate last week, initially planned to hold off on a vote in the House until toward the end of the legislative session in April. But they moved up the vote to this week after determining a furious campaign against it by opponents might lead to the erosion of support.
Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery County), the bill’s author and lead sponsor in the Senate, joined a spokesperson for the statewide LGBT group Equality Maryland in expressing confidence that the committee would soon approve the bill.
“I just think you see politics going on,” said Madaleno, who is gay. “It’s a high-profile issue and you’ve got some legislators who are supporters of the bill who still say they are supporting the bill who are just trying to bring attention to issues that they care about as well.”
He added, “I remain optimistic that we’re going to have the votes needed to pass it when it gets to the floor. Obviously, the first step is getting it through the committee. And we have the majority of the committee who are co-sponsors.”
Linsey Pecikonis, communications manager for Equality Maryland, said her group also remains confident that the committee will approve the bill.
“None of the delegates that have been supporting the bill in the past – none of them have wavered in their support,” Pecikonis said. “They just want to make sure that they are drawing attention and people are aware of other issues that are going on within the committee.”
Madaleno noted that opponents of the bill would seize on the wrinkle that surfaced in the House Tuesday to advance their claim that support for the bill is eroding.
“I think that just speaks to what we have to do, and that is, do the same thing — pull out all the stops,” he said. “No one should take anyone for granted in this debate. People should be calling their delegates and asking them to vote for the bill.”
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council approves expanded grant funding for Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs
Measure introduced by Zachary Parker faces second vote
The D.C. Council on June 9 gave its first round of approval to an amendment to the city’s fiscal year 2027 budget that calls for increasing the number and size of funding grants that the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs provides for local organizations providing services for the LGBTQ community.
The amendment, titled the “LGBTQ Community Grant Amendment Act of 2026,” was introduced by D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member.
The amendment calls for the LGBTQ Affairs office to issue a $980,000 grant in fiscal year 2027 to a private, nonprofit organization in partnership with the office “for the purpose of supporting programs that promote the welfare of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community.”
The organization would also initiate its own fundraising effort to expand the amount of funds beyond the amount the office would provide, enabling it to provide larger grants to a greater number of local LGBTQ organizations.
Among other things, the amendment says the organization chosen for this new role should have a “proven track record of success in grant making and fundraising” and agree to undergo an annual audit and submit quarterly reports to the office on its use of the funds it receives.
Under its rules for approving legislation, the Council must hold the second vote on the budget bill with the Parker amendment before it is sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature. It must then go to Congress for a congressional review that does not require approval, but could result in a vote to disapprove the measure, an action Congress usually does not take.
In a June 12 statement, the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition called the D.C. Council’s initial approval of the Parker amendment, “a historic measure that establishes the District’s most sustainable model for a vehicle for investing in LGBTQ communities.”
The statement adds, “The legislation arrives at a critical moment, as LGBTQ-serving organizations face unprecedented uncertainty. Growing demand for services is colliding with shrinking resources, federal attacks on LGBTQ programs, and ongoing threats to local funding streams.”
It says the new program that the Parker amendment would create, if it reaches final approval, “creates a durable mechanism to protect and expand investments in the organizations that thousands of District residents rely upon every day.”
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said he was looking into the mayor’s position on the Parker amendment but didn’t immediately get back with a response.
Virginia
Gay 1920s-era Hollywood star to be honored in Staunton, Va.
Billy Haines became acclaimed designer after anti-gay policies ended his acting career
A project is underway in Staunton, Va., to honor William ‘Billy’ Haines, who was born and raised in Staunton before becoming an out gay 1920s and early 1930s-era Hollywood movie star whose acting career ended around 1934 when he refused demands that he conceal his sexual orientation and end his relationship with his male partner.
Haines left the movie business around that time to start what became a highly successful interior design and furniture business in Los Angeles that he led until his death in 1972 at age 72, and which remains in business today, according to the Arcadia Project, a Staunton-based nonprofit initiative.
In a statement released last month, Arcadia Project announced it is working to revitalize a long-vacant movie theater in downtown Staunton that it plans to rename after Haines. It says a fundraising campaign is under way to support efforts to reopen the theater and the larger building in which it is housed as a “dynamic mixed-use cultural center.”
The statement notes that Haines left Staunton at age 14 and resided in Hopewell, Va., and Greenwich Village in New York City until 1922, when he was “discovered” by a talent scout and sent to Hollywood.
“Between 1922 and 1934, Haines appeared in 54 movies during his meteoric and highly successful career,” the Arcadia Project statement continues, noting he transitioned from silent movies to talkies and was fully open about being gay. “But when Hollywood’s moral crackdown of the 1930s demanded that he end his relationship with his longtime partner Jimmie Shields, Haines refused,” it says.
“For LGBTQ people – then and now – Haines’s choice resonates deeply. Rather than deny who he was, he reinvented himself as an interior designer to the stars,” according to the statement.
It says he helped invent the so-called Hollywood Regency style home and designed homes for Hollywood legends such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, George Cukor, and Jack Warner as well as for political figures like Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California.
“As there is no monument, marker or public recognition for Haines in his hometown of Staunton, Va., Arcadia Project, in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ community in Staunton seeks to commemorate him inside a new cultural center,” the statement says.
It quotes Arcadia Project Executive Director Pamela Mason Wagner as saying, “Naming the movie theater in Haines’ honor is more than an act of historical recognition – it is a powerful statement about visibility, belonging, and whose stories are valued in our community.”
The statement says project leaders hope to open the cultural center in early 2027, with a fundraising campaign seeking to raise $250,000 to renovate the theater.
“If the full goal is not reached, a smaller space within the building will be named for Haines, scaled to the amount of funds raised,” it says. “We truly hope friends and admirers of Billy Haines everywhere will want to participate.”
Donations for the project can be made through this site: www.thearcadiaproject.org
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