And the backlash begins

Posted on November 20, 2003 by Gene

From today’s Washington Post:

Virginia lawmakers could seek to tighten the state’s ban on gay marriages and screen judicial appointments more carefully after a Massachusetts court ruling that grants same-sex couples the right to civil marriages.

As the gay-rights debate threatens to roil the Maryland General Assembly, where legislators are expected to file competing measures, Virginia’s six-year-old ban probably will mute any broad discussion of the matter.

Lawmakers who would like to overturn the ban said they did not see any possibility of receiving a friendly response. But several did say that they feared that this week’s decision in Massachusetts would encourage those who are opposed to gay marriages to tighten restrictions already in place.

“I’m afraid that this will galvanize people in Virginia who are opposed to gay and lesbian equality,” said Del.-elect Adam P. Ebbin, an Alexandria man who will become the state’s first openly gay lawmaker when the Virginia General Assembly convenes in January. He said lawmakers should focus on other goals, such as changing Virginia law to protect homosexuals from discrimination in housing and other areas.

And then there’s this unbelievable comment from a Maryland delegate:

“I don’t want to live next door to people who have a same-sex relationship and have children and have my children playing with them,” said Del. Emmett C. Burns (D-Baltimore County), who plans to sponsor the bill prohibiting Maryland from recognizing same-sex marriages in other states. “Civil unions and all this business is bad policy economically, socially, educationally and politically.”

I’ll ask again: can anyone imagine someone saying that today about an interracial couple? Times change, people. Get with it.