The Maryland Senate voted Thursday evening to legalize same-sex marriage, the latest sign of growing national recognition of such unions among gay and lesbian couples.
Six states and the District of Columbia already issue same-sex marriage licenses -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Five states -- Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- allow civil unions that sheet metal stamping provide rights similar to marriage.
"All children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law," O'Malley said in a statement after the vote.
New Jersey lawmakers approved same-sex marriage this month, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the legislation. He has said voters should decide the issue in a statewide referendum.
The flurry of activity is a stark change from two decades ago, when the issue of same-sex marriage first gained national attention. Just a decade ago, no states allowed such unions.
In 1996, when Congress defined marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, 68% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, with just 27% in favor, according to polling by Gallup. By May 2011, the ac power cord lines had crossed, with 53% of Americans in favor and 45% opposed, according to the organization.
The Maryland vote comes less than two weeks after Washington legislators voted to legalize same-sex marriage. That measure will take effect in the summer if it survives a likely court challenge.
Voters in Minnesota and North Carolina, meanwhile, will consider proposals in November to ban gay marriage in those states. New Hampshire lawmakers may also consider a repeal of its same-sex marriage law, according to the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage. Lawsuits seeking to expand civil unions or turn back laws banning same-sex marriages are working through the courts in at least 12 states, including Hawaii, Minnesota and California, the organization said.
In November, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported a more divided public -- 46% in favor of same-sex marriages and 44% opposed. But Pew also said the tomato paste uptick in support seems to be gaining steam, having jumped 9 percentage points in two years.
"There's no question that with so many Americans having changed their minds and opened their hearts as they've heard the stories of real couples and thought about why marriage matters, we now have tremendous momentum towards ending marriage discrimination," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, which favors recognizing a right to marriage for gay couples.
Same-sex marriage became a national issue in 1993, after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages violated the state constitution.
Legislation was introduced recently to allow same-sex marriages in Illinois, and bills from 2011 remain technically active in Hawaii and Minnesota, said Jack Tweedie of the National Council of State Legislatures. It's unclear whether any will see significant action, he said.
An effort is also underway to put a proposal to legalize same-sex concrete vibrating screed marriage on the November ballot in Maine, where voters previously overturned a 2009 state law authorizing same-sex marriage.
In California, meanwhile, a federal appeals court recently ruled against a voter-passed referendum that outlawed same-sex marriage. It said such a ban was unconstitutional and singled out gays and lesbians for discrimination. The case appears to be eventually headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Citing the 31 states in which voters have approved measures defining solenoid valve marriage as a union between a man and a woman, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown said he doesn't believe polls saying that a majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage.
Brown said Democratic legislatures -- not voters -- have been behind most of the recent action on same-sex marriage. Upcoming ballot initiatives will give voters an opportunity to refute the polling, and Brown says they will.
"The reality is that in these 31 states, everywhere we've had a vote, is that voters have said they believe marriage is an institution between a man and a woman," Brown said.
"What you will see is that there will be a vote in states representing all the different regions of this country and people are going to have the chance to say, Digital thermometer emphatically, 'No'," Brown said.
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