A coalition of liberal state and national groups plans to launch a renewed effort Tuesday to pass legislation allowing same-sex marriages in Maryland, The Washington Post reports that the organizers of the of the group, Marylanders for Marriage Equality, say they intend to run a comprehensive campaign in advance of next year’s legislative session, with the hope of producing a different result than this year, when a bill passed the Senate but failed in the House. Same-sex marriage advocates say they were hamstrung by a late start in this year’s session. “We all started running toward getting a bill passed without building a campaign in advance,” said Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Montgomery), a leading advocate of the legislation. This time, she said, “we’ll be running a very aggressive campaign that targets specific districts and regions where we need to shore up our vote count.” The coalition, which plans to announce its effort at a press conference Tuesday in Baltimore, will be guided by a staff member on loan from the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights organization that is still celebrating passage of same-sex marriage legislation in New York, which became the sixth state where gay couples can marry. Other members of the Maryland coalition include the state’s largest gay-rights lobby, Equality Maryland; the national group Freedom to Marry; the left-leaning organization Progressive Maryland; labour unions Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America; and the American Civil Liberties Union. The more public lobbying effort is among the lessons that advocates in Maryland say they have leaned from New York. Advocates are also pushing Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) to lay a more visible role in the effort. During this year’s debate in the Maryland House, several delegates grew uneasy about the legislation as black churches in Prince George’s County and other foes stepped up their opposition. The bill was also a hard sell among some Democrats in more conservative districts in Southern Maryland and the Baltimore suburbs, and only one Republican in the legislature supported the measure.
The Associated Press reports that when the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts issues pay checks to its public employees, nearly two dozen workers find a federal tax on their income that their colleagues do not have to pay. Like many people, the 22 school and city workers chose to put their spouses on their employer-provided health insurance. Because they're in a homosexual relationship, the value of that health coverage is considered taxable income by the federal government. But starting this month, Cambridge will become what is believed to be the first municipality in the country to pay its public employees a stipend in an attempt to defray the cost of the federal tax on health benefits for their same-sex spouses. The city employees hit by the extra tax pay an additional $1,500 to $3,000 in taxes a year and officials estimate the stipends would cost the city an additional $33,000. "This is about equality," said Marjorie Decker, a Cambridge city councillor. "This is a city that models what equality really means." Of the thousands of legally married gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts, none can receive the federal benefits offered to heterosexual married couples because the federal government doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. Those benefits include Social Security survivors' benefits, immigration rights, family leave and the ability to file joint tax returns. The council last month approved the measure that would provide quarterly stipends to any city or school employee who puts a same-sex spouse on their health insurance. The vote came after council members began looking in January for a way to offset what they called an unfair and discriminatory tax." This is ultimately a fairness issue. Two people who do the exact same job should be paid exactly the same for what they are doing at work," said Leland Cheung, a Cambridge City Councillor who pushed for a proposal with fellow councillor E. Denise Simmons, who is openly gay. Decker and Cheung said the additional funds needed from the city's personnel budget is a minor cost in the city's more than $500 million budget, but some say the public's money should not be used to go against established law. "It's a travesty of using taxpayer monies to circumvent a national policy," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, an advocacy group opposed to same-sex marriage. The 15 year old federal Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, allows states to deny recognition of same-sex unions performed elsewhere and prevents the federal government from recognizing gay marriages. This provision federal prevents even gay and lesbian couples married legally by a state (as in Massachusetts) from receiving any federal benefits.
Daniel Hernandez, the openly gay intern who helped save the life of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday night's 82nd All-Star Game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, reports The New York Post. Hernandez, 21, was hailed as a hero after his quick thinking was credited with keeping Rep. Giffords (D-Ariz.) alive until paramedics arrived after she was shot in the head outside a Tucson-area grocery store in January. After hearing the gunfire, Hernandez ran to Giffords and held her upright so she could breathe and applied pressure to her head wound. He had been hired by Giffords less than a week before the January 8 attack. Among those killed in the shootings, in which six people died and 12 others were wounded, was Christina Taylor Green, the daughter of Los Angeles Dodgers scout John Green and granddaughter of former Major League Baseball manager Dallas Green. MLB commissioner Bud Selig invited the families of all of the victims to participate in the pre-game ceremony. Hernandez will be joined in throwing out the first pitch by 85-year-old baseball legend, Joe Garagiola Sr.
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