Maryland voters on Tuesday upheld a gay
marriage law approved by lawmakers.
Media called a win for Question 6 at
about 12:30AM ET Wednesday morning. According to POLITICO.com, the
measure was passing 51.8% to 48.2% with 92.8% of precincts reporting
“Maryland's voters agreed with their
lawmakers, governor, and a majority of Americans nationwide: same-sex
couples should not be denied the chance to make the ultimate
commitment because of whom they love,” Shawn Werner, director of
political operations at Freedom to Marry, said in an email to
supporters. “We look forward to all the marriages we'll celebrate
in 2013, even as we turn our momentum into more victories across the
country.”
After an effort to legalize gay
nuptials in 2011 failed in the House of Delegates, Maryland Governor
Martin O'Malley announced that he would follow in New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo's footsteps and shepherd the bill through the
Legislature.
Openly gay and allied members of the
House championed the bill with emotional pleas to their colleagues.
Passage was won with a compromise: the
law would not take effect until January, giving opponents an
opportunity to put the issue on the ballot in November.
Opponents immediately vowed to do just
that, forming the Maryland Marriage Alliance, its main contributor
the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). The campaign that
followed was steeped in religious anti-gay rhetoric. In one
instance, a
pastor associated with the campaign suggested gay people and their
allies are “worthy of death.”
Appearing at campaign rallies,
fundraisers and on television ads, O'Malley, a rising star in the
Democratic Party, strongly backed passage of Question 6.
“For equality, for fairness, for
religious freedom vote for Question 6,” O'Malley said in a video
released Monday by the campaign to uphold the law, Marylanders for
Marriage Equality.