Photos
The Maryland Senate has delayed its vote on same-sex marriage legislation until Thursday.
The 47 legislators had planned to take up the bill, which was passed Friday by the House of Delegates, during their Wednesday morning session.
The opponents said the procedural delay would allow them time to seek an opinion from the attorney general on several amendments as well as prepare additional amendments that could be offered Thursday.
One amendment, offered by Sen. Edward Reilly, an Anne Arundel County Republican, would allow the law to go into effect on Oct. 1 — thus removing an amendment by Del. Wade Kach, a Baltimore County Republican, that set the effective date as Jan. 1, 2013.
"It may look like a placebo, but this is really a poison pill," said Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat. "Any effort to amend the bill is an effort to kill it."
Proponents and opponents acknowledge that changing the bill at this point will be nearly impossible.
Passage in the Senate is also expected.
"I don't anticipate a single vote has changed," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.
Miller said he had hoped the Senate would deal with the bill Thursday, "so we can move on with the business of the state."
"We've made progress though," Miller said. "We adopted the favorable committee report."
The Senate is expected to take up the bill again Thursday morning.
What do you think about the bill? Vote in our poll and share your comments below.
Ann Potteiger
7:20 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
How soon Marylanders forget Sodom and Gomorrah.
Corbin Dallas Multipass
8:30 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
What DCGUY said, plus just because they can get married doesn't change that homosexuals exist already so if society was going to fall to pieces we'd probably already by there.
Thomas
1:16 pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Look at it this way. Would you support laws that restrict/forbid/ban who you can marry? Government telling you what to do?
The Big Egg
1:27 pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thomas--just to be clear, the Government already tells us who we can and cannot marry. Laws say we can marry only one person (at a time). Laws tell us how old we have to be to marry (depending on parental consent). Laws tell us what relatives are off-limits to us in marriage. Come to think of it, why can't two sisters, who are long past child-bearing age, marry for the last years of their lives?
Jeff Hawkins
2:18 pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
@The Big Egg
"Come to think of it, why can't two sisters, who are long past child-bearing age, marry for the last years of their lives?"
That's a good one! O'Malley's working on it as we speak......