Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tanya Rodriguez and Wendee Montes tied the knot at the Anne Arundel Circuit Courthouse in Annapolis on Wednesday.
After 13 years, Tanya Rodriguez and Wendee Montes didn't want to wait another day to get married. "No one is guaranteed tomorrow," Montes said. "If something happened to her, I wanted to be able to say she was my wife." The Brooklyn Park women became the second same-sex couple to marry in the chapel at the Anne Arundel Circuit Court in Annapolis on Wednesday morning. "It's an amazing, amazing feeling," Rodriguez said. "I knew I was going to cry." Voters in Maryland upheld a law legalizing gay marriage in the November election, but it didn't take effect until Tuesday. Since state offices were closed for New Year's Day, Wednesday was the first time couples could marry at the courthouse. Since Gov. Martin O'Malley certified the election …
Monday, December 31, 2012
Numerous key laws passed in 2012 by the Maryland General Assembly take effect on Jan. 1.
Same-sex marriage, a first-in-the-nation arsenic ban for chicken feed and a law designed to protect children's credit reports are among the Maryland laws taking effect on Jan. 1. Some, including the marriage law and a Baltimore City charter amendment, were passed by voters in November. Others tweak existing rules, like renewable energy credits and car insurance. Here are the key laws you need to know about that take effect, according to a Maryland General Assembly document. Same-sex marriage: The Civil Marriage Protection Act, passed in the 2012 session, petitioned to referendum and ratified by Maryland voters in November, takes effect as scheduled on Jan. 1. Maryland was one of the first three states to ratify same-sex marriage at the …
Friday, December 7, 2012
Three couples registered for the county's first same-sex marriage licenses at the Circuit Court in Annapolis on Thursday.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The licenses will become effective on Jan. 1, 2013.
Beginning Thursday (today), same-sex couples can get marriage licenses in Anne Arundel County. "We've had two same-sex applications applied for today already," Circuit Court Clerk Robert Duckworth said. "I think the word is just getting out as to the availability of this process." That process includes a holding period that restricts the licenses validity until Jan. 1, 2013. Same-sex marriage was signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley on March 1 and voters upheld the law on Election Day by approving Question 6. After the law was upheld, there was a question as to whether same-sex couples would be able to receive a license before Jan. 1, the day the law officially goes into effect, according to The Baltimore Sun. Because marriage licenses …
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The younger you are, the more likely you are to support same-sex marriage. What does this mean for Maryland?
Based on Maryland's age distribution and a changing national attitude on same sex marriage, one could expect–surprise–a close referendum fight in November. Earlier this week, you may have read that increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage is not the result of a nationwide change of heart, but because those opposed tend to be older and are literally dying off. A study by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life found that the increase of acceptance for same-sex marriage is the result of changing, aging demographics and "generational replacement," defined by Pew as "the arrival of younger, more supportive generations making up a larger share of the population." Nationally, 48 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, up from 35 …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
In an interview on ABC News, the president says he supports same-sex marriage. The issue is likely to go to referendum in Maryland this fall.
President Barack Obama picked the day after a decisive vote in North Carolina to announce that his "evolution" on the issue of same-sex marriage was complete—he now supports it. In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Obama said: I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage—at a …
Michelle L
10:55 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Wow....we actually needed a law to ban arsenic in our food supply. more ›