The Maryland State Bar Association has endorsed the marriage equality bill, the WaPo reports:
The endorsement of the State Bar, which is comprised of 24,000 lawyers and judges, comes just days before Maryland lawmakers turn their attention to the bill in earnest. A Senate committee hearing on the measure is scheduled for Tuesday.
“I could not be prouder of our endorsement of this bill,” Henry E. Dugan Jr., president of the State Bar, said in a statement.
Dugan said the bill is “protective of religious sensibilities and prerogatives” and also “emphatically extends those civil rights embodied in our fundamental belief that ‘all men are created equal' — and not simply ‘all heterosexual persons are created equal'— to our entire citizenry.”
Watch Governor Martin O'Malley, who introduced the bill, talk about it after a breakfast with LGBT advocates earlier this week, HERE. O'Malley is meeting with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today and will discuss same-sex marriage and immigration issues, the AP reports.
