Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Governor of Maryland has notified state employees that shared benefits for domestic partners will end on December 31, and if they want to continue their health insurance coverage, they'll have to get married. [ Read more → ]

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore pediatric neurosurgeon who made derogatory comments comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality has withdrawn as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. [ Read more → ]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A bill that would have prohibited discrimination against transgender Marylanders in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations, failed on Thursday to pass a committee vote. [ Read more → ]

The largest study on transgender populations in the country found that one in five Maryland respondents report having lost their job due to being transgender; 12 percent have been, or are homeless and over half of the transgender population has been harassed and or denied service in a public space, just for being who they are. These statistics paint an unfortunate, but accurate, picture of how transgender Marylanders are being treated by their fellow Maryland residents, including their families, their co-workers, and their neighbors. Like any marginalized community, it is hard not to internalize this really hurtful mistreatment. [ Read more → ]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — An ethics panel has criticized a Maryland lawmaker for using his official letterhead to urge Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti to restrain linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo from publicly supporting same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Maryland lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would ban anti-transgender discrimination in the workplace, housing and public accommodations. [ Read more → ]

A Cub Scout pack in Maryland has been forced to rescind its gay-inclusive non-discrimination policy in order to keep its charter with the Boy Scouts of America. [ Read more → ]

A Maryland lawmaker told a local newspaper last week that legislators who voted for the state’s same-sex marriage bill contributed to his alcohol abuse. Delegate Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel County) told the Maryland Gazette in an interview the newspaper posted to its website on Saturday... [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- Gallaudet University has reinstated its chief diversity officer after a three-month paid suspension for signing a petition opposing Maryland’s same-sex marriage law. [ Read more → ]

Four members of the anti-gay extremist Westboro Baptist Church were met by 250 counter-protesters on Wednesday morning when they arrived outside the Anne Arundel Circuit Court building in Annapolis to protest the state's recently enacted marriage equality law. [ Read more → ]

The Westboro Baptist Church, home of anti-gay extremists known for their “Gods hates fags” and "God hates dead soldiers" protests, has received permits to rally in front of courthouses in Towson and Annapolis, Md. on Wednesday, according to police officials. [ Read more → ]

After 35 years together, Jim Scales, 68, and William Tasker, 60, married shortly after midnight on Tuesday, becoming one of the first same-sex couples in Maryland to wed under the state's new marriage equality law. [ Read more → ]

Same-sex couples in Maryland are eagerly awaiting the New Year, as at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the state's new marriage equality law takes effect. [ Read more → ]

BALTIMORE, Md. -- An openly gay East Baltimore resident who was severely beaten Christmas night told police investigators that he believed that he was attacked because he is gay. [ Read more → ]

ST. MARY'S COUNTY, Md. -- The Chief Clerk of the Circuit Court for St. Mary’s County, Md., said Thursday that some deputy clerks were opposed to the state's new law legalizing same-sex marriage, based on their religious convictions and will no longer officiate at wedding ceremonies. [ Read more → ]

The owner of Annapolis' iconic old-fashioned trolleys that are often synonymous with the city's wedding scene, said he is abandoning the wedding industry, rather than be forced to serve same-sex couples when Marylard's marriage equality law takes effect next month. [ Read more → ]

The number of contributors who gave in support of marriage for gay and lesbian couples was thirteen times greater – about 133,000 compared to an estimated 10,500 - than those giving financial resources to oppose marriage equality, according to an analysis by the Human Rights Campaign of donors to the four states with marriage equality on the ballot this year. [ Read more → ]

The Human Rights Campaign on Thursday called on the Maryland Marriage Alliance to return a $10,000 donation by Michael Peroutka, an alleged active white supremacist and secessionist sympathizer who was one of the three largest individual donors to the campaign against marriage equality in Maryland. [ Read more → ]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley on Thursday morning signed a proclamation affirming that voters had approved a marriage equality ballot question last month, and with the stroke of his pen, gave the green light to marriage officials to begin issuing marriage applications to same-sex couples. [ Read more → ]

ANNAPOLIS, MD -- Marriage officials in Maryland can begin processing marriage applications for same-sex couples, allowing them to wed on New Year's Day, according to an opinion by the state's Attorney General. [ Read more → ]