CUMBERLAND — While the local legislative delegation may not agree on everything, members agree that marriage rights shouldn’t be given to same-sex partners in Maryland.
Sen. George Edwards and delegates Wendell Beitzel, Kevin Kelly and LeRoy Myers Jr. all went on the record opposing same-sex marriage at their prelegislative public meeting Wednesday.
The legislators were responding to a question by Joe Shipley, who is active in the Maryland Family Alliance. Shipley asked each of the legislators to go on the record with his opinion.
“This is not an issue I look at as a political issue,” Shipley said.
Marriage should be limited to a union between one man and one woman, Shipley said.
Gov. Martin O’Malley plans to back a proposal legalizing same-sex marriages as part of his 2012 legislative package.
O’Malley, who is Catholic, has come under criticism from Archbishop Edwin O’Brien for his stand.
“I write to urge you to refrain from using the power of your office to promote the redefinition of marriage in Maryland,” O’Brien wrote to O’Malley.
Beitzel agreed. “I’m very much opposed to legislation allowing same-sex marriage,” Beitzel said.
Edwards said the Senate took a vote on a same-sex marriage proposal in 2011, “and I opposed it.”
“I believe marriage is between one man and one woman,” Kelly said. “They’ll probably twist enough arms to get it out of the House (this session).”
Kelly believes the same-sex marriage proposals will ultimately go to a statewide referendum. He said one group that strongly opposes same-sex marriage includes many of the black churches in cities and that last year, same-sex advocates didn’t count on their strong opposition.
Myers said he also strongly opposes same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Bruce McBride is senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Cresaptown and a local leader of the Maryland Family Alliance.
McBride is working to create an alliance of local pastors and churches that stand for retaining the current definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, as the federal Defense of Marriage Act states. The alliance is growing and McBride said he’s getting a good response.
“We are for stronger families and a stronger Maryland,” McBride said. The defense of traditional marriage isn’t just a Baptist issue, but involves all sorts of denominations and religious viewpoints, he said. The Maryland Marriage Alliance is a companion group, McBride said.
Shipley asked legislators to use all their influence to stop the same-sex marriage proposals in the General Assembly.
“If that fails, put in the time to get the issue to referendum,” Shipley said.
“The Maryland Family Alliance has a rich history that derives from the roots of the Family Protection Lobby. The Family Protection Lobby was started by a consortium of pastors and concerned citizens who were alarmed about certain elements of the curriculum that was being distributed to children in our public schools,” the organization’s website states.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com.
