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From the Washington BladeO'Malley open to signing marriage bill
Md. governor 'disappointed' by Senate president's opposition to civil unions
by Kevin Naff
Friday, October 5, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Gov. Martin O'Malley, in an exclusive interview with the Blade this week, indicated that he is amenable to signing a bill extending marriage rights to gays, as long as it contains a provision exempting religious institutions.
"Without infringing on anyone's faith, that would be a law I should sign," he said.
Several lawmakers have vowed to introduce such a measure in the next legislative session beginning in January, though passing a marriage bill in Maryland would likely be an uphill fight. Senate President Mike Miller has said that he opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions. O'Malley said he backs civil unions and was disappointed by Miller's opposition to such a measure.
The interview, conducted in the governor's office in Annapolis, came about after gay Marylanders reacted with disappointment and anger to a statement O'Malley issued last month in response to the state high court ruling upholding a ban on same-sex marriage.
"...Those of us with the responsibility of passing and enforcing laws have an obligation to protect the rights of all individuals equally, without telling any faith how to define its sacraments," O'Malley said in a statement. "I respect the Court's decision."
But this week, O'Malley said he regretted that last sentence.
"I would have deleted that line about respecting the court's decision," he said. "I was trying to separate religion from the rights of marriage." He added, "the court was saying they take a restrained view of judicial activism on this issue and turned it over to the legislature."
Several plaintiffs in the case accused O'Malley of flip-flopping on the question of marriage support. They cite e-mails from O'Malley that expressed support for gay marriage and a 2004 WJZ-TV interview in which he said he backed "civil marriage." Several members of O'Malley's gay task force while he was mayor of Baltimore said he told them he supported same-sex marriage.
O'Malley this week denied that he ever supported same-sex marriage and said his position has never changed.
"It is false that I changed my position," he said.
Lisa Polyak, one of the lead plaintiffs in the Maryland marriage case, shared with the Blade her private e-mail exchanges with O'Malley during the course of the court fight. In one message, O'Malley responds to an e-mail from Polyak thanking the then-mayor of Baltimore for his support of same-sex marriage. O'Malley writes, "You are most welcome, Lisa. However, I'm just supporting something I strongly believe in. I wish you and your family nothing but the best." That message is dated Oct. 22, 2004.
But O'Malley said any e-mails to the plaintiffs were sent by a staff member in his constituent services office and not by him directly.
"Someone in constituent services took too great liberties with language," he said.
That explanation did not sit well with Polyak.
"I think it's easy for him to deny what he said because he's never had to face us personally," she said. "He's willing to say that other people wrote e-mails on his behalf and signed his name and... they made a promise on his behalf without his knowledge and against his explicit intention? I don't believe it. The bottom line is we cannot trust Governor O'Malley."
As for the WJZ-TV interview, which remains available online at www.wjz.com, O'Malley said he now regrets his choice of words then. During the interview, O'Malley said, "I'm certainly not opposed to it. I don't see how we can deny governmental protection to those sorts of contracts. I know that churches will certainly have different views. And that certainly is their right and no one should infringe on that. But... I'm not opposed to civil marriages."
But this week, O'Malley said, "I regret using the word marriage. I believe my position then is consistent with what I say today.... I support equal respect and equal rights under the law."
The legislative path to relationship recognition in Maryland will likely include a full marriage rights bill, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and possibly a civil unions bill in the next session, which begins in January. O'Malley reiterated his opposition to an amendment, which Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) has promised to introduce again. A similar measure died in committee last year.
At the time of that debate, O'Malley was publicly silent on his position; his then rival for the Democratic nomination in the governor's race, Doug Duncan, denounced the amendment effort and criticized O'Malley for not speaking out on the issue. This week, O'Malley said he didn't recall the timing of his announcement, but that he remains firmly opposed to such an amendment.
"I don't think the constitution -- any constitution -- should be used to discriminate," he said.
O'Malley did not commit to supporting any specific legislation, but repeated an endorsement of civil unions. He also said he would like to revisit the Medical Decision Making Act, which his Republican predecessor, former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, vetoed. That measure would have given registered domestic partners -- gay or straight -- hospital visitation and medical decision making rights.
O'Malley said he contacted Equality Maryland this week about setting up a meeting to discuss legislative priorities for next year.
Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, told the Blade this week that his group is "decisive" about moving forward on a full marriage bill, and that its lobbyists plan to talk to lawmakers about the inequality that "separate classifications" such as civil unions would enact.
"All avenues to equality remain on the table, since our No. 1 goal is to make life better for LGBT Marylanders and their families," Furmansky said. "But we will not in any way be advocating for the introduction of a civil unions bill." He added that a civil unions bill would "undercut" the marriage dialogue.
"The word 'marriage' is imbued with religious connotations," O'Malley said. "Civil unions allow us to create consensus."
But he didn't completely close the door on one day backing same-sex marriage.
"The most important quality in a leader is a willingness to grow and dialogue and reach compromise," he said. "So I try to keep an open mind on all issues."
O'Malley also expressed admiration for the plaintiffs in the marriage case, applauding them for "the courage it takes to step out of private life and into the public arena to fight for what they believe in."
"I feel badly for the tremendous amount of anger that they must feel to live in a state where the law doesn't protect them equally," he said.
Polyak dismissed the remarks and called for O'Malley to act on his words.
"I wish he felt less empathy with our anger and more empathy for our lack of legal protections," she said. "He's in a unique position to use the power of his office to make the landscape more equal for us. He says he's committed to it, but it's a commitment without action -- it's an empty promise."
She and her partner, Gita Deane, plan to stay involved in the fight for marriage rights in Maryland.
"We are the families that need protection so we'll continue to ask for them," she said. "Perhaps we have a bigger role and that is as surrogates for all families in Maryland who don't have the resources or the voice we do.... On behalf of them, I'll stay with this until the day we get civil marriage in Maryland."
In a lighter moment, O'Malley responded to an item in the Washington Post last week in which columnist Marc Fisher claimed O'Malley has trouble using the word "gay." O'Malley called the accusation "strange" and said Post writers don't know him well. When asked to prove that he isn't uncomfortable with the word, he responded with a grin and said, "gay."