As Maryland's gay marriage debate moved
from the Senate, which
approved the bill, to the House, Delegate Don H. Dwyer Jr.
claimed lawmakers who support the institution are lying under oath.
Dwyer is leading the GOP effort to
derail the measure in the House.
The Ann Arundel County Republican
kicked up lots of dust last year when he attempted to impeach
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler for directing state agencies to
recognize the out-of-state legal marriages of gay and lesbian
couples.
Dwyer has announced he's taking another
stab at the effort this year with a measure that would end the
recognition. But first he's joined with the National Organization
for Marriage (NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay
marriage, to block the gay marriage bill in the House.
“Homosexuality will be taught at some
level to children attending public schools as has been ordered by the
court in various states,” Dwyer said during a morning press
conference on Friday.
The Maryland Republican Party has begun
blanketing parts of the state with robocalls, which tell voters that
Democrats are working to “destroy traditional marriage.”
“They are eroding the values [this]
country and state were founded on by redefining marriage,” a female
says in the message.
At a Friday hearing on the bill, Dwyer
claimed that lawmakers in favor of gay marriage were committing
perjury, because they know it's a lie.
“Today we find ourselves facing a
decision that deep in our heart and our conscience we know is wrong,”
Dwyer told lawmakers. “That 12 of you on this committee have
sponsored a bill to redefine and destroy forever the God ordained
institution of marriage.”
He added that lawmakers were about to
ignore God's law on homosexuality.
“We all took an oath on opening day
of this session, yet there are many here who do not understand that
an oath is an appeal to God by him who makes it. That what he has
said or shall say is the truth. It is the most solemn form under
which one can assert or pronounce anything. To utter a falsehood
while under oath is perjury, a crime of the darkest hue, one which
God himself has declared that he will punish, and one which has made
infamous and punishable by fine and imprisonment by the laws of the
land.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)