A sad day for GLBT Marylanders

Today, Maryland's Court of Appeals ruled against the 19 gay and lesbian couples who sued the state for the right to marry. I won't try to explain the legal issues argued because I'm no expert. The ACLU argued that Maryland's gay marriage ban was discriminatory based on sex and argued that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry under the state's Equal Rights Amendment. Our highest court rejected this argument. You can read the ruling here or excerpts of it here.

Our only recourse is to take our fight to the state legislature. After being flatly rejected by our court system, I don't have much faith that we can get the legislature to budge on this issue. We may have won the battle against a constitutional amendment, but that wasn't easy. The fight to actually gain rights will be much harder and there's little incentive for legislators to change the status quo.

And to make matters worse, the GLBT community is dependent on Equality Maryland to lead the charge for marriage rights. This effort will take a major feat in organizing, something Equality Maryland really sucks at doing. The Executive Director, who's been around for several years now, doesn't even know all the legislators' names, especially those from Baltimore City. He's shown a disdain for our city and tries to get everything done without stepping foot in it. Apparently, they recently hired a legislative coordinator who lives in the city. That's a step, but there's no time to waste now. Our legislative session starts in January. We need to have house parties and meet ups right away to create a coordinated campaign.

On a more personal note, as Caroline and I begin our family, this decision personally affects me more than ever. We have to jump through legal hoops just to make sure our child's parents will be recognized as the family we are. Wills, powers of attorney, second parent adoption, and others I haven't thought of yet. Ironically, one of the first statements of the ruling starts with, "In declaring that the State's legitimate interests in fostering procreation and encouraging the traditional family structure...." (emphasis mine) Are these two things completely intertwined? I'm procreating. Doesn't that count? I guess not because we don't have a "traditional" family structure. Well, I'm glad my family isn't traditional. My child will grow up with three loving parents. How could that be bad? Unfortunately, he or she will have to explain over and over again to friends and adults what our family looks like and how it's just as great as anyone else's.

The court ignored the reality that science has created. Anyone can become a parent through the miracle of modern science. Our laws and legal system need to recognize the reality of today's society. There is such thing as a "traditional" family, but there's no justifiable reason to cater to that family structure. No one suffers by being more inclusive.

If you want to learn more about the case, visit the ACLU website here. I think this is significant enough to require more blogging, so I will continue the discussion in future blogs.