Senators convened in the morning and debated the bill for over one hour before recessing shortly after 11 a.m. Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said senators would return after 5:30 p.m. to resume discussion.
During the morning session, senators for and against the marriage equality bill presented their arguments. Speakers in support included Rich Madaleno, the first openly gay Maryland state senator, who spoke poignantly of what the proposal means for the two children he shares with his partner, Mark.
Madaleno told a story about parenthood in which his young daughter asked, “Daddy, will you hold my wishes for me?”
Sen. Bryan Simonaire, an opponent of the bill who tried but failed to advance an amendment Wednesday to exempt public school teachers from teaching marriage equality, continued with his dire warnings of “unintended consequences” if the measure is passed.
Simonaire decried that February 24, 2011, would be remembered as “the day traditional marriage died in Maryland.”
Also speaking in the morning session was Allan Kittleman, the lone Republican senator to break with his conference and support the bill. Kittleman invoked novelist Victor Hugo in calling the marriage equality bill “an idea whose time has come.”
Sen. Robert Zirkin took care to correct an assertion from Sen. E.J. Pipkin that every state with marriage equality had previously approved the “in-between” step of civil unions. Pipkin called the bill “extreme” because it would deny Marylanders the chance to “test-drive” civil unions, although he failed to mention that civil unions have proven inadequate for same-sex couples in states such as New Jersey.
Zirkin said that supporting marriage equality would be his “easiest vote in 13 years.”
Senators concluded the morning with a discussion of the fiscal impact of approving marriage equality, which they planned to continue after the recess ends at 5:30 p.m.
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