Maryland Governor Vetoes Gay Family Bills
(Annapolis, Maryland) Maryland’s Republican governor announced Friday he will veto two bills which would have helped same-sex couples and gay families.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich said that he will reject the Medical Decision Making Act and a bill that would have eliminated an unfair property tax levied only on unmarried couples.
The Medical Decision Making Act would have created a limited domestic partnership registry allowing unmarried couples to serve as each other’s next of kin for crucial healthcare and post-mortem decisions.
The Act contained 11 basic protections, seven of which could not be accomplished through advance directive, power of attorney, or will. (source)
And, he actually did veto the Medical Decision Making Act.
Governor Robert Ehrlich of Maryland vetoed a bill yesterday that would have granted rights to gay partners who register with the state, concluding after weeks of intense deliberations that the legislation threatened “the sanctity of traditional marriage.” [...]
Modeled after laws in California, Hawaii, and other states, the partners’ rights legislation would have granted nearly a dozen rights to unmarried couples who register with the state. Among those: the right to be treated as an immediate family member during hospital visits, to make healthcare decisions for incapacitated partners, and to have private visits in nursing homes.
Another measure sought by gay-rights activists that would have extended a property transfer tax exemption to domestic partners also was vetoed. (source)
I don’t know what to tell you folks. To the couples in Maryland, my thoughts are with you. My hope is that someday, somehow, those who have worked at and successfully denied our families basic human dignity will someday find themselves in a place or situation of knowing what this feels like. I will never understand how people such as the governor of Maryland can be such a narrow sited ignorant homophobe.
This bill had nothing to do with marriage. This bill would have protected real families and real people who, as things stand now, have no way of obtaining that protection.
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Fortunately, I think the right thing will happen here in the Free State eventually. Though we have next year’s election year politics to complicate the potential overrides of Ehrlich’s many bad vetoes. We may also have to wait until the Court of Appeals finally steps into the matter to secure full marriage rights, or even “separate but equal” rights. And we may very well have to wait even after the Court of Appeals win those rights. But I’m sure that eventually Maryland, the 48 other states, and even the federal government, will join the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in rectifying inequality. Your recent experiences in Connecticut prove that people will eventually, in spite of themselves, realize their failings and move, however slowly, toward equality. Time might not be on our individual sides, but time is on the side of humanity and justice.
I feel the same way bill,one day people will remember this when they are faced with the same situation and there are laws that prevent them from helping there loved one,they need to walk in our shoes for awhile and see what we are faced with everyday,but i hope one day all people are seen as equal and deserving of the same benefits that our taxes pay for,if not then we should get a tax break then maybe if all the bigots had to pay more taxes for being married and having more rights than us,then maybe that would change there views on equal right for all.