With a proposal to amend the state constitution languishing in committee and only two weeks left in the General Assembly session, Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus, R-Somerset, resorted to a rarely used parliamentary move to try to bring the amendment out of the Judicial Proceedings Committee. He submitted a petition asking the Senate to bypass the committee and put the amendment on the agenda for debate.But that move got the royal beatdown from Sen Brian Frosh who hails from mostly metrosexual Montgomery County:
Sen.Frosh chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, immediately responded with another unusual move, making a motion to table the Stoltzfus petition indefinitely.Check mate, bi-yatch!!
The republican delegation proved its tenuious grasp of Maryland constitutional law by offering the same tired old arguments:
"Polls show that a majority of people in this state support making a marriage between a man and a woman," Stoltzfus said. And Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, said the legislature should stand up to activist judges who make law instead of interpreting it.It's not about polls, it's about the constitutional rights of gays in Maryland. And further, it's the judicial preragative to intervene when the the legislators are part-n-parcel with the discrimination.
When I called Sen. Frosh's office to tell him thanks for standing up for all Marylanders, the aide who took my call went to my high school which made the warm fuzzy feel that much more personal.
I am proud to be gay. And I am proud to be from Maryland.
3 comments:
I think we have an encouraging trend in this country in which people are realizing - "gay marriage is not a big deal. The world isn't coming to an end." We still have a long way to go. That's not the majority view yet. But it's getting there. Also, younger people are better than their parents and grand parents on this issue. In the long run, Republicans are going to lose this wedge. I'm sure they'll come up with another one. They always do. That's why their Republicans.
Republican delegations would do better if they switched tactics and went for the "big scare". Like encouraging liberals to submit "gay right's afirming" legislation that they can then run against. In many states, such legislation would have little chance of passing, and so it's a no brainer for the Republicans.
Wait...no...just forget I said any of this.
kvatch's kvetch is correct.
The whole thing is realpolitics. People don't really care all that much but they are tired of a homosexual agenda being shoved at them from all directions. The point of the Republican initiative is to get Dems to respond. Gay rights, as a ideology does not go well in America. Human rights does.
So Reps will try to get Dems to address the issue, Dems will try to avoid it.
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