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Maryland SSM Bill Stalls, For Now In a statement released March 11, Equality Maryland, the state’s largest homosexual advocacy group, conceded defeat but said the battle was not over. “Though we are disappointed that we must continue to fight for marriage equality, today's move was a strategic step that will allow us to fight and win in the future,” the statement reads. “We celebrate that-for the first time-marriage equality legislation made it through the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, the Senate, the House Judiciary Committee, and was debated in the House of Delegates.” Pro-family advocates in Maryland celebrated the news as a victory for traditional marriage. “Kudos to those brave Maryland delegates who defied the arm-twisting and political pressures to do the right thing: listen to your constituents,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). “This victory comes from the people of Maryland whose quiet, under-reported, but extraordinary outpouring of opposition to redefining marriage is the reason for this victory. Not only did marriage win, but democracy won today.” Had SB 116 passed and same-sex “marriage” been legalized in Maryland, the law would probably have been put on hold pending the outcome of a referendum on a Marriage Protection Amendment in Maryland. Pro-family advocates in the state, including NOM, the Association for Maryland Families, and the Maryland Catholic Conference, had vowed to gather the necessary signatures required to put the Marriage Protection Amendment on the ballot for the people to vote. Legislation that would give North Carolinians the opportunity to vote on a Marriage Protection Amendment has been introduced in the General Assembly for the eighth year in a row. The bill, SB 106—Defense of Marriage, would ask voters on November 6, 2012 (the date of the next statewide general election) to vote for or against a “Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.” To learn more about why North Carolina needs a Marriage Protection Amendment, download our new issue brief here.Related resources: Copyright © 2011. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.
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