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Get mad, get active


Come to Annapolis on February 11 to fight for civil marriage equality after disappointment of Maryland high court's heartbreaking ruling


by Susan Goering
Friday, January 25, 2008

ON SEPTEMBER 18, Maryland's highest court, in a narrow (4-3) decision, chose to deny committed same-sex couples the right to marry. Are you mad? You should be.

When we filed the court case in 2004, we argued that the Maryland State Constitution required the state government to extend marriage (and all the protections it offers partners and children) equally to all Marylanders, including same-sex couples. The court's decision came as a shock to everyone.

Reading the decision makes us profoundly angry, broken hearted and sad, but it still leaves us with hope. In the end, despite more than 100 pages of verbiage, the court relies on only one justification for upholding Maryland's discriminatory marriage laws -- the claim that only heterosexuals need marriage, because only they can accidentally procreate, which is dismissive of the myriad ways that families are created.

The court's decision will not stand the test of time. After fighting for rights for more than 85 years, the ACLU knows perhaps better than anyone that the moral arc of the universe truly does bend toward justice.

Forty years ago, we celebrated the ACLU's 1967 Supreme Court victory in Loving v. Virginia, which overturned laws criminalizing interracial marriage. Now, it's difficult to fathom that Mildred Jeter, who was black, and Richard Perry Loving, who was white, could not be married in Virginia and, worse, were sentenced to one year in prison for returning to Virginia after marrying in the District of Columbia.

The connection between Loving and Deane and Polyak v. Conaway, the Maryland case, is clear. Maryland's first-ever African-American Chief Judge, Robert M. Bell, agreed with us. His dissent in the case truly is a silver lining in the decision's dark cloud.

AT TIMES LIKE this it's important to recognize how much further we are on the road to marriage rights than we were when the case was filed more than three years ago. The lawsuit has truly advanced the conversation in Maryland and changed many hearts and minds. That's because ACLU client families put a human face on an abstract legal proposition, and because high profile lawsuits have a unique ability to focus public attention on an issue.

Thankfully, the courts are not the last word. People don't have power over the judiciary, but they do have power over elected officials. The high court essentially invited us to change the law by throwing the issue back to the Maryland General Assembly. Each and every one of us needs to take them up on the offer.

We are all mad. But we need to be more than mad. Right now, there is an opportunity for everyone to take an active role in changing hearts and minds -- and the law -- by passing "The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act."

IT'S TIME WE all take action.

And so on Feb. 11, at 5 p.m. we are joining Equality Maryland for a rally at the steps of this state's General Assembly to call for a legislative solution on behalf of thousands of families in Maryland who are denied the fundamental right to marry. We'll demand that Maryland grant lesbian and gay Marylanders the full measure of equality. The sting of being second-class citizens has been felt for too long.

Should committed partners be able to get medical insurance for a loved one? Yes. Should a couple together for 25 years be able to make medical decisions for each other in times of crisis? Yes. And should parents be able to provide every protection for their children, as well as the dignity that all children should feel as they grow up? Yes!

Come to Annapolis on Feb. 11 to fight for civil marriage equality. Share your voice, and your love, for your partner and your children, with the 188 legislators who will decide whether the Free State will correct the mistake made by four of seven judges on the Court of Appeals.

Legislators have a lot of power, but so do you. Join us in getting mad -- and active.