Together on a homobigot life raft to nowhere: NJ’s Chris Christie and MD’s Sam Arora

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http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/02/17/together-on-a-homobigot-life-raft-to-nowhere-njs-chris-christie-and-mds-sam-arora/

Talk about being on the wrong side of history. Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and delegate Sam Arora of Maryland, are stubbornly clinging on to their political homophobia like a life raft as the winds of change blow them further out to sea.

In the case of Chris Christie, today he vetoed a marriage equality bill that passed both bodies of the state legislature, fulfilling his promise to do so in spite of popular approval to extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples, instead of the current separate and unequal in reality civil unions.

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And perhaps more onerous is the case of Sam Arora, who ran on a marriage equality platform, which opened the wallet$ of the LGBT community, only to reverse his position. Today was one of the “no” votes when the Maryland House of Delegates voted 71-67 to pass the Civil Marriage Protection Act of 2012. (Metro Weekly):

On Twitter, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.), wrote, “Today, the House of Delegates voted for human dignity. Love is an unalienable right. At its heart, their votes were votes for Maryland’s children.”

He added: “Now, as the Senate prepares to vote, all of us are needed & we’re prepared to redouble our efforts.”

Among the Democrats voting against the bill in the House was Del. Sam Arora (D-Montgomery County), who had run on a platform that included support for marriage equality but enraged activists in 2011 by opposing the bill when it was being considered. Although advocates had been pushing for him to support the bill this year, he voted “nay” tonight.