Maryland gay marriage
Maryland's top court recognises same-sex divorce
Gay couples can get divorced in Maryland even though same-sex marriage is not yet allowed in the US state, its highest court has ruled.
Maryland's Court of Appeals unanimously dictated in the case of two women married in California who were denied a divorce in the state in 2010.
Gay marriage was legalised in Maryland in March, and is to initiate in January.
But opponents hope voters will overturn the measure in a referendum this November.
To complete so, 56,000 signatures must be gathered by the termination of June in favour of such a ballot.
"A valid out-of-state same-sex marriage should be treated by Maryland courts as worthy of divorce, according to the applicable statutes, reported cases, and court rules of this state," <link> <caption>the judges' ruling said</caption> <url href="http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2012/69a11.pdf" platform="highweb"/> </link> .
Jessica Port, 29, and Virginia Cowan, 32, were married in California in 2008, shortly before gay marriage in that US express was banned by a constitutional amendment known as Proposition 8.
Nearly
Thursday, June 26, will stamp ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Maryland voters passed marriage equality two years before that, and a pioneering couple helped lay the groundwork.
Gita Deane and Lisa Polyak spoke to WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren about the milestone anniversary and their possess fight, which was unsuccessful in the courts but paved the way for equality.
Battle for marriage equality
In the kitchen of Polyak and Deane's Baltimore residence, their marriage license is proudly on display.
"It's one of the most key tools in our animation, and we worked really hard for it," Polyak said. "A lot of people worked really strenuous for it, and we just feel like it needs to be in the heart of our home."
The couple, now together for more than 40 years, became the lead plaintiffs in a 2004 lawsuit arguing that Maryland's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
They did it in part for their children, and remember obstacles to health insurance, even routine medical visits.
"Our pediatrician wouldn't allow Gita bring my hereditary child for her well-baby visits because Gita didn't have a legal rela
Maryland’s Marriage Equality law, permitting same-sex couples to grow married in the Declare of Maryland, was approved by voters (52% for; 48% against) on November 6, 2012. Under the law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in 2012, the law took outcome on January 1, 2013.
Maryland previously recognized same-sex marriages legally formed in another state but did not allow gay couples to marry in the mention. The Maryland Marriage Equality law changes the earlier language defining a marriage to state, “Only a marriage between a gentleman and a woman is valid in this State,” to language that is not gender-specific: “Only a marriage between two individuals who are not otherwise prohibited from marrying is valid in this State.”
Under the new law, religious entities are not required to perform or promote marriages if doing so would violate the entity’s religious beliefs. This means that while gay and lesbian couples may join in the state, they cannot compel a church to rent facilities to them for celebration of their nuptials and they may not compel a priest, rabbi, mullah, or other religious leader to perform the ceremony.
Same-sex couples who wed enjoy precisely the same
Maryland Marriage Equality
Same-sex couples own been able to join in Maryland since January 1, 2013. On Parade 1, 2012, Governor Martin O’Malley signed H.B. 438, a bill that allowed same-sex couples to unite. However, opponents gathered signatures to put a referendum that would have repealed the new law on the ballot. On November 6, 2012, the referendum did not pass. NCLR worked as part of a broad coalition to help pass the bill and defeat the referendum.
Even before this law went into effect, Maryland already recognized marriages between queer couples entered in other jurisdictions. On May 18, 2012, the Court of Appeals of Maryland (the state’s highest court), commanded in Port v. Cowan that Maryland must notice an out-of-state marriage of a same-sex couple if the marriage was valid in the state where the couple married. Under the legal doctrine of “comity,” the court held that Maryland must distinguish out-of-state marriages for purposes of divorce and for all other purposes, even if the couple could not have entered into the marriage within the state.
Information about relationship recognition in other states .
'Lawfully married': Maryland ushers in 2013 with its first gay nuptials
BALTIMORE -- Seven gay couples in Maryland rang in the New Year with wedding bells early Tuesday, the first wave of nuptials since voters in the declare backed the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The couples were "lawfully married" rather than pronounced "husband and wife" at the 12:30 a.m. ET ceremony on Unused Year's Day in Baltimore's City Hall.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake officiated at the wedding of the first of the couples, 68-year-old James Scales and 60-year-old William Tasker. Scales and Tasker said they had been together for 35 years.
The mayor joked that everyone had come to rejoice a relationship that began many years ago -- "and I mean that, many years ago."
Making a statement
Soon after the November vote legalizing gay marriage, Scales, a longtime city employee, asked the mayor to marry the two.
"She wanted to create a statement to tell gay, woman loving woman, transgendered couples that they're welcome here," said the mayor's press secretary, Ian Brennan, of her decision.
Maine same-sex couples marry in first hours of law
Voters in Maryland, Maine and Washington sta