Maryland Governor O'Malley Open to Recognizing Out-of-State Same-Sex Marriages

Recently, it was made aware that Maryland's law, despite its ban on same-sex marriage, may still allow the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states legally.

A public push for Governor O'Malley to request Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, who supports marriage equality, to review the law followed. It didn't take long for openly gay Sen. Richard S. Madaleno to make the request and now we wait for Gansler's opinion.

However, in the meantime, Gov. O'Malley, whose official stance is that he supports civil unions over granting LGBT citizens marriage, yesterday told WTOP's "Ask the Governor" that "If a person has those rights under another state. ... I think we probably should respect those rights."



O'Malley won't act though until Gansler finishes with the opinion, which could take months. "If the law allows that, then that's what we will do," he said.

State Delegate Don Dwyer told WJLA he wants the voters to decide on this issue. "If I lose and we grant same sex marriages as a result of a defeat of my constitutional amendment, so be it... but at least the people of the state of Maryland have had the final say," he said.

"Again, I'm not homophobic about this specific issue -- I simply believe Maryland law was intended for specific purpose," said Dwyer.

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said O'Malley has no intention of doing anything before Gansler's opinion is issued, saying that is the "prudent" course.

There's a chance that none of this may matter since a marriage equality bill is working its way through the legislative system that would overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Though similar bills have always died in the past, this time Sen. Frosh, a key senator and chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, has decided to co-sponsor the bill for next year.