Lynne Bowman, the founder of Equality
Ohio, will serve as Equality Maryland's interim executive director,
gay
weekly Metro Weekly reported.
Bowman replaces outgoing Morgan
Meneses-Sheets, who
was fired by the group's board on Sunday.
“Ms. Bowman will step in to lead
Equality Maryland on an interim basis following the departure of
Morgan Meneses-Sheets, who has stepped down as executive director,”
Chuck Butler, board chair, said in a statement.
Bowman said she has no desire to take
on the post permanently: “I absolutely have no desire to make it a
permanent thing. I think it benefits the organization to have an
interim come in that doesn't have an interest in becoming the
full-time executive director.”
“My role at Equality Maryland will be
to help stabilize and to move things forward and to prepare the
organization for their new executive director,” she added.
The shake-up comes after two
high-profile bills backed by Equality Maryland failed in the
Legislature this year.
A measure that sought to make Maryland
the sixth state to legalize gay marriage sailed rather effortlessly
through the Senate only to be shot down in the House. And a bill
that would have outlawed discrimination based on gender identity
(transgender protections) in the areas of housing and employment
squeaked out a win in the House but died just days later in the
Senate.
Equality Maryland's decision to support
the transgender protections bill after its main sponsor dropped its
accommodations clause was criticized by some transgender activists,
several of whom testified in committee against the bill.