Andrew Q. Gordon

In less than three weeks the people of Maryland are going to vote on my civil rights. For anyone reading from another country, yes this happens all the time in the United States – seems like every year some religious group manages to put on the ballot a referendum question asking the citizens of one state or another to vote to limit the civil rights of gays and lesbians. For a country that touts the separation of church and state, it is astounding how much of our civil rights are control by religion.

But in 2012, the Maryland legislators voted to pass civil equality on the issue of marriage.  Contrary to the scare tactics of the religious right and the republican party, Maryland’s marriage equality does not adversely affect any religious community. Yet their ads on TV continue to try to scare folks into believing their religious freedom is at stake.

But Proposition 6 is only about marriage equality for Gay and Lesbian couples.  So if you live in Maryland – vote YES for Proposition 6.  If you have friends and family in Maryland whose ears you can bend, get them to vote YES for Proposition 6.

Several developments – I won’t call them good news – because until the vote is in, it isn’t final, but these are helpful and certainly not bad news either.

First – the Marriage Equality folks are out raising and therefore out spending the anti-marriage equality folks. While this is certainly good news, as this article points out, it’s hardly a ticket to success.  17 of 26 times in votes on Gay rights and specifically ‘Gay Marriage’, the Marriage Equality folk  have out raised and out spent those opposing equal civil rights and all 17 times they lost. So more money doesn’t guarantee success.

Second – polling in Maine, Maryland and Washington are in our favor.  In Maryland and Washington, the legislator passed the law and the law is now up for a citizen vote.  Washington state is looking more hopeful, but Maryland has good news too.  Maine the vote is whether or not to restore equal civil rights that was taken away 4 years ago.  But good polls don’t necessarily mean success. The polls were better than the vote many times and the votes have always gone against us*. But I’m hopeful this time they’re more accurate. We’ll see.

*In 2006 Arizona voted down an anti gay marriage bill, but it passed in 2008 so technically it has always gone against us/

Now a piece of good news.  A second U.S. Court of Appeals Ruled that DOMA is unconstitutional. The 2nd Circuit ruled today that DOMA can’t deny federal benefits to gay and lesbian couples who are married in states that allow gay marriage. I bet that if the Supreme Court upholds these decisions, the conservatives might end up committing mass suicide given how impossible it seems for there to be a federal amendment on the issue.

Hopefully things are as good as they seem.