Last March, on a radio show, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley expressed his support for advice from attorney general Doug Gansler that the state should recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, and indicated the state was implementing it.
On the same show yesterday, O'Malley went further, suggesting that he would sign a marriage equality bill should it be presented to him.
O'Malley's remark came in response to a question from a caller on the station's "Ask the Governor" program about the future of gay marriage in Maryland.
"I don't have a crystal ball to predict how this goes," O'Malley said, "but I do know this: I know the people of our state well enough that for all of the differences and diversities of backgrounds and opinions, that all of us want to find a way to craft our laws in such a way that it treats people equally under the law."
O'Malley said he personally believes that allowing for civil unions would be the best way to reach a compromise in the legislature. But he added that "should the legislature find a way to reach that compromise in another way, I would sign a bill like that … we need to find a way to support equal rights, and that is true when it comes to committed gay and lesbian couples and the unions in which they choose to enter and raise children and all the issues that go with that."
O'Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec cast the governor's comments as consistent with previous statements, saying the governor had said he would sign a gay marriage bill if and when it passes.
Now the legislature just needs to make that happen.
