Ministers rally against same-sex marriage

BALTIMORE - At the Hilton in Baltimore this past weekend, the national conference on Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Equality laid the foundation for what it hopes will be a victory this winter.

 

"We have been here for 5 days training, making strategy, building the political power of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people," said conference director Sue Hyde.

 

A political power that is getting quite the boost here in Maryland from a governor that not only spoke at this year's conference, but is about to introduce a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.

      

"Now other states, other states have already found a way to protect religious liberty, religious freedom and to protect rights equally and it is time for Maryland to do the same and that's why this week we propose a civil marriage law in the general assembly of Maryland and we seek to get it done this year," said Governor Martin O’Malley.

 

With the governor's unbridled support for the bill this year, many proponents of it believe it stands a better shot at passing, but it will meet the very same opposition that sunk it last year.

 

"I am definitely, adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage.  No if, ands or buts about it."

 

One of the men leading the charge is Baptist Minister and Maryland Delegate Emmett C. Burns of Baltimore County.

 

He is part of the group called Progressive Ministers Against Same-Sex Marriage and says it is more organized this year and will fight against what he calls the slippery slope the governor's bill presents.

 

A message the group hopes is loud enough to here at a rally on Lawyers Mall Monday evening.

 

"Let them be as they want to be and what they want to be but don't come here telling me to marry you because you are man and man and woman and woman?  No, that goes against every ethical, moral understanding that we've had throughout the centuries."

 

But this is a new century that may bring about a new understanding; an argument both sides are lining up to fight this week in Annapolis.

 

Governor O'Malley says the bill he will introduce this week strikes a balance between equality and religious freedom; a notion Delegate Burns rejects.