Will Maryland Get On Board With Gay Marriage?

(From The Baltimore Sun)

As same-sex marriage movement builds national momentum, an opportunity may exist for Maryland to recognize all out-of-state unions.

With legislators voting to approve same-sex marriage in Maine and New Hampshire last week, the momentum for change in marriage laws is building. Soon, Rhode Island may be the only New England state that does not recognize gay marriages.

Iowa already permits them. California did briefly. Last week, members of the City Council in Washington, D.C. voted overwhelmingly to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Maryland, where the law requires marriage to be between a man and a woman and where attempts to overturn that requirement have been bottled up in legislative committees, could yet join the national trend. But it will require Gov. Martin O'Malley to demonstrate more than the casual interest he has shown in legalizing civil unions, let alone gay marriage, in the past.

What Mr. O'Malley must do is this: Ask Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler for a legal opinion determining whether Maryland law permits the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. And if Mr. Gansler finds that it does, the governor should immediately sign an executive order directing state agencies to adjust their rules and regulations to do so.

Read the full story here.