SUMMARY: Maryland's governor signed into law a measure that will protect gays and lesbians from discrimination, saying it might be one of the "most meaningful" laws of his administration.
With a signature from Gov. Parris N. Glendening on Wednesday, Maryland became one of only 12 states in the country to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians.
The bill adding sexual orientation to the protected classes in the existing state statute was among more than 200 measures Glendening signed into law in a ceremony Wednesday. The governor told those gathered that the new laws "may be the most meaningful of this administration," the Baltimore Sun reported. "They go to the very heart of the values that are so important to us -- the values of fairness, of justice and inclusion," he said.
Glendening was a strong proponent of the gay rights measure. His brother, who was gay and died of complications from AIDS, was a motivating force behind his support of the bill.
The bill's lead sponsor, Delegate Sheila Hixson, had introduced it each year since 1993. The signing was particularly poignant for Hixson, whose gay son died last December at the age of 40. She said, thought, it was not her son's orientation that drove her to support gay rights. "I saw it as a human rights issue rather than homosexual or gay rights," she told the Baltimore Sun. Hixson said she wasn't sure she even knew her son was gay the first time she introduced the legislation.
The battle over the bill may not be over, however. An organization called Take Back Maryland has launched a petition drive to collect the more than 40,000 votes needed to bring a voter referendum attempt to repeal the law. "The Free State must NOT be taken captive by Homosexual Lobbies and Special interest groups," the group says on its Web site.
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