Maryland's Attorney General Delivers on Gay Marriage Opinion

by Michael Jones · 2010-02-24 08:25:00 UTC
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Equal RightsMaryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has finally ruled on the question of whether his State could legally recognize same-sex marriages that are performed out-of-state in places where gay marriage is legal. Gansler's verdict? Yup, Maryland can recognize these marriages.

Now it just takes a Court or the Maryland Legislature to make it happen.

Gansler's opinion came after months and months of waiting -- and more than 800 emails from Change.org members urging him to recognize out-of-state legal same-sex marriages. According to Gansler, though views on same-sex marriage might be diverse, personal beliefs shouldn't influence the law.

"We must put aside personal policy views concerning same-sex marriage and focus on how the Court of
Appeals would apply choice-of-law rules about out-of-state marriages," Gansler writes.

His opinion doesn't lock Maryland into recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages. But it certainly offers a solid hope that action will be taken, either legislatively or perhaps more expectedly from the Maryland State Supreme Court, to make out-of-state marriages valid in the State.

Expect this to drive some conservative Maryland legislators into fits of rage. Earlier this month, two legislators tried to move forward pieces of legislation that would have blocked Maryland from recognizing out-of-state gay marriage, or in one radical case, would have impeached Attorney General Gansler preemptively for writing an opinion favorable to gay marriage. Those pieces of legislation died, thankfully.

Kudos to Attorney General Gansler. It took too long for this decision to come down, but now that it's here, it can be celebrated as an opinion that recognizes the inherent goodness and legitimacy of same-sex relationships.

Photo credit: CarbonNYC

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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