May 22, 2008 6:39 pm US/Eastern
Bills Signed Affect Same Sex Couples
WASHINGTON (WJZ) ―
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Civil rights bills affecting same sex couples were signed into law Thursday.
Civil rights bills affecting same sex couples were signed into law Thursday, but is Maryland ready to follow California in legalizing same sex marriage?
Political reporter Pat Warren reports the state's legislative leadership has an answer.
Delegate Heather Mizeur held hands with her partner in January and pledged to get a law passed to allow them to marry with bipartisan support on behalf of all gay couples in Maryland.
"We had hoped, in the beginning, to get full marriage equality on the books, but we always knew we needed a back-up plan because the Senate's a much more conservative institution. We knew, counting our votes, it was going to be difficult to get it through, but we didn't want to come up empty-handed at the end of the day," said Mizeur.
Mizeur and supporters had two successes in hand Thursday, allowing hospital visitation rights and property transfer tax relief for any domestic partnership regardless of sexual orientation.
That's as far as most lawmakers were prepared to go.
"I don't believe that I should vote to legalize men marrying men and women marrying women. I don't believe in it. I'm not going to vote for it," said Mike Miller.
"Quite candidly I don't think there's support for gay marriage. I do think there's support for, as I said, civil rights legislation that creates equity within the court of law. Many people believe as I do, civil unions are the appropriate way to go," said Mike Busch.
That's the way Governor O'Malley would go as well.
"I personally believe that the civil unions statute is the way to go, and that's how we defined common ground with so many people with differing opinions around this issue," said O'Malley.
Maryland's highest court has upheld state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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