MD State Senate expected to pass marriage equality next week.

[RandySF]

The measure now goes to the Senate, which passed a similar bill last year and is expected do so again. The chamber will likely take up the measure next week.

Should the bill pass in both chambers, activists on both sides believe it would be petitioned to referendum in November. If voters approve the measure, the earliest a gay couple would be able to wed is January 2013, when the law would go into effect.

The victory is significant for O'Malley, who threw the weight of his office behind the measure after a similar bill fell a few votes short in the House last year. The governor had been working the halls of the House office building at all hours to persuade wavering delegates.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-same-sex-alert-20120217,0,2535292.story

[RKP5637]

1. K&R !!! K&R !!!K&R !!!K&R !!!

[LonePirate]

2. Does the referendum have any chance of passing, especially without an Obama endorsement?

It's great the legislature will likely pass it and O'Malley will then sign it; but if voters reject the referendum, nothing changes.

[Orangepeel]

3. The referendum will be to repeal, like Prop 8. We want it to fail.

One of the amendments that got passed delays implementation until January, so that nothing will change unless the referendum is defeated.

It isn't automatically on the ballot. Opponents need to get something like 55,000 signatures. A third need to be in by the end of May and the rest by the end of June. Unfortunately, opponents of the Maryland Dream Act just got a repeal measure on the ballot for that. Everyone expects a repeal of marriage equality to also be on the ballot because the same or a similar Internet petition drive will be used (plus some churches). So people are assuming that it will be on the ballot, but opponents do have to get the signatures first.

[LonePirate]

4. Thanks for the info. The second paragraph in the OP implies the referendum needs to pass not fail.

It's these language snafus which lead to losses on our side.

[Orangepeel]

7. You are right that it reads that way.

On a completely unrelated note, it is a crying shame that the once great Baltimore Sun has such lousy reporting.

Here's a story from the network of neighborhood papers



SNIP

The amendments were added to the bill Friday afternoon following a meeting between House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Del. Tiffany Alston, a Prince George’s Democrat, during the debate on the bill.

An amendment was added to the legislation Thursday that moves the effective date of the legislation from October 2012 to January 2013 to secure the vote of Del. Wade Kach, a Baltimore County Republican. Kach said in an interview Friday afternoon he wanted the amendment attached so opponents would have enough time to try and put the issue to a referendum.    


SNIP

Szeliga said the focus is now on moving the bill, which is expected to be passed in the Senate, to a referendum on the 2012 ballot in November along side the bill that grants tuition to some illegal immigrants.

"I'll be strongly working on the petition drive as soon as it get's out of the Senate," said Szeliga.
http://towson.patch.com/articles/house-passes-same-sex-marriage-bill-3db2a9ac

[JaneQPublic]

5. An earlier referendum attempt failed to repeal Maryland's Anti-Discrimination Law

When this law passed in the early 2000s to protect the rights of gays and lesbians in Maryland in employment, housing, etc., gay rights opponents organized a petition drive to hold a referendum.

However, many of their signatures were disqualified due to fraud, failure to follow the rules, etc. Some people who had signed the petition complained to officials that they weren't told what the petition was really for and were not given a copy of the official text to read, as required.

After failure of the petition drive to secure a referendum, one of the out-of-state organizers of the petition drive said with all of Maryland's rules, it is a particularly hard state in which to get a referendum on the ballot. Let's hope that proves to be the case this time around, as well!

[Orangepeel]

6. It was hard before the Internet :-(

I really hope you are right. But Maryland courts just recently ruled that signatures can be collected online (re the Dream Act which will be on the ballot in Nov)

For anyone who doesn't know, The Maryland Dream Act (in state college tuition for non citizen Maryland high school grads whose parents were undocumented) is an especially contentious bill with iffy popular support, so it will be harder for opponents of marriage to get signatures than it was for those opponents. Your example is much closer in terms of how the public feels, but since opponents of marriage equality will undoubtedly use the same methods (and probably lists) as opponents of the Dream Act, it's a good bet they'll get the signatures.

I am cautiously optimistic that the State will do the right thing, but I am pessimisticly sure that ther are at least 70,000 petty bigots in the state who will sign the petition.