Maryland Delegate Alston Releases Statement Saying She Is Now Ready To Vote For Civil Marriage Protections Act; Plans Of Temper-Tantrum Throwing Delegate Carter Remain Unknown

The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland Delegate Tiffany Alston says she is now prepared to vote on the Civil Marriage Protections Act and it appears she will vote for the bill to legalize same sex marriage. Alston (Democrat- Prince George's County) was one of two legislation co-sponsors who refused to vote on the bill at a key committee session Tuesday. She told The Sun Tuesday night that she had needed "time to think it through." However, in a statement delivered in the early morning hours today, Alston, a new delegate, said that "From the beginning of my campaign I have told the people that elected me that I personally supported the same sex couple’s right to marry. I believe all people should be treated equally regardless of their sexual orientation. ... I have resolved that if and when the chairman calls the vote I will be ready to vote based on what I believe to be right." (The entire statement after the jump.) What Delegate Jill Carter (Democrat-Baltimore) plans to do remains unknown for now. Carter said Tuesday she was withholding support to call attention to other issues, specifically two other bills she is sponsoring on education funding and joint custody of children in divorces, that she says she views as "more important, or at least equally important." It is unclear whether the House Judiciary Committee will try again today to take a vote on the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. The plan needs 12 committee votes to pass, and exactly 12 delegates (including Carter and Alston) signalled their support by signing on as co-sponsors.