There were certainly a lot of moving, important, and serious speeches on Tuesday evening when the state Senate voted 28-21 to pass gay marriage. In particular, I’d point to Sen. Kevin Ranker’s (D-40) speech about his gay father, Sen. Debbie Regala’s (D-27) speech about marrying her husband, who’s Filipino, one year after the US Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in 1967, and Sen. Steve Hobbs’ (D-44) speech about honoring his gay military colleagues. (Watch the debate here.) Stranger writer Eli Sanders, who’s gay, was particularly moved by Sen. Cheryl Pflug’s (R-5) speech about American History.
(Interestingly, Regala’s marriage is a white/Asian combo. If gay bill sponsor Sen. Ed Murray (D-43)–whose partner is Asian–is finally able to marry in December after the likely referendum vote, Regala’s marriage would dovetail with Murray’s marriage to Michael Shiosaki with historical resonance.
But momentous occasions aside, what struck me most about Monday night’s debate was that there hardly was a debate. (I’ll never forget Seattle Times reporter Andrew Garber sitting next to me saying with some relief “here we go” when one of the unfriendly amendments came up, evidently hoping for some drama to cover. It never quite came.) Really, the most memorable moments (one of which was memorialized in the New York Time’s brief coverage of the vote) were the humorous ones.
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The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is calling on the Maryland Senate to reject a gay marriage bill approved Friday by the House of Delegates.
