Gay marriage bill introduced in Maryland, countered by bigotry.
Legislation introduced Friday in Maryland that would redefine marriage as “…between two people, not otherwise prohibited from marrying,” has sparked state senators to draft a constitutional amendment in the name of “protecting marriage.”
Maryland’s Marriage Protection Act, designed to amend the state’s constitution to explicitly define marriage as between a man and a woman, will be voted on in the November general election by the state’s citizens. The bill, sponsored by 8 Republican state senators, would effectively neuter the all-Democrat-sponsored Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act.
The latter act would alter existing family law so that the state’s gays could marry as soon as October, and provides a clause that allows religious institutions that would otherwise feel pressured into performing gay marriage ceremonies to refuse based on First Amendment grounds.
SB169, Maryland’s Marriage Protection Act
Article XV – Miscellaneous
8.(A) ONLY A MARRIAGE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN IS VALID IN THIS
STATE.
(B) A CIVIL UNION OR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS OF THE
SAME SEX, BY WHATEVER NAME OR TITLE, THAT CONFERS THE BENEFIT OF
MARRIAGE IS NOT VALID IN THIS STATE.
Read Maryland’s Marriage Protection Act here.
Article - Family Law
§2–201.
(A) Only a marriage between [a man and a woman] TWO PEOPLE, NOT
OTHERWISE PROHIBITED FROM MARRYING, is valid in this State.(B) THIS SECTION MAY NOT BE CONSTRUED TO INVALIDATE OTHER
SECTIONS IN THIS TITLE
Read the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act here.
Well, I guess either way marriage is getting protected. You can thank the inbuilt, twisted sense of humor that politicians all seem to share for that.
Read more: Baltimore Sun article, Washington Post article, 365Gay article.
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