Openly gay Maryland State Sen. Richard Madaleno has penned a letter to Northrop Grumman officials ahead of the company’s decision on a site for new executive offices.  The lawmaker points out stark differences in the way Maryland and Virginia treat their LGBT citizens under law, according to the Washington Post.  The company is said to be deciding between Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“Here in Maryland, we value our gay and lesbian citizens as part of a diverse population that makes the state strong,” Madaleno wrote. “Virginia is doing the opposite and letting its LGBT citizens — and those considering whether to move and work there — know that they and their families are unwelcome second-class citizens. And they are counting on corporations like yours not to care.”

Northrup Grumman, a defense contractor, has earned top ratings in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, indicating the company is interested in attracting and retaining LGBT employees.  Meanwhile Virginia’s new governor, Bob McDonnell, recently angered LGBT rights groups by removing protections for LGBT state employees.

Maryland courts will likely rule that same-sex couples legally married elsewhere are recognized as married in Maryland, according to an opinion issued today by Attorney General Douglas Gansler.  He was responding to a request for an opinion filed by State Sen. Richard Madaleno, who is openly gay.  The opinion does not carry the weight of law, but it does guide state judges who may well decide the matter.

Gansler also said it was his opinion that Maryland’s governor may not issue an executive order recognizing same-sex, out-of-state marriages.

A Baltimore Sun story about the opinion quoted one state legislator who’s trying to block marriage equality in Maryland:

(T)he opinion will likely stir an election-year debate about the polarizing issue. The House earlier this year rejected a measure that would have preempted Gansler’s opinion by barring the state from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Del. Emmett Burns, a Baltimore County Democrat who introduced that bill and opposes same-sex marriage, said he is “not surprised at all” by what he called a “poltitical” ruling.

“The attorney general has made a big mistake,” Burns said. “I don’t understand that kind of rationale coming from a legal mind. All it does is muddle. It doesn’t clarify anything.”

Burns said Gansler, whom he said may have his eye on a higher office, “is simply trying to develop a political base.”

Burns said Sen. Norman Stone, a fellow Baltimore County Democrat, is pursuing a bill similar to his own effort to override Gansler’s ruling by implementing a new law.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary committee is considering a bill that would basically codify Gansler’s decision. Burns said that if that measure comes to the House floor, it will cause “pandemonium in an election year.”

Burns said he expects voters to ultimately decide the matter. “It is going to end up on referendum, and I am going to win.”

In 2002, Richard Madaleno became the first openly gay person elected to the Maryland General Assembly.  Write’s Madeleno in today’s Washington Post:

It was important to me to be straightforward about who I was while not being pigeonholed as “the gay guy.” I immersed myself in my role as a public servant, focused on my constituents and worked hard. As time passed, people began to see me as “the budget guy,” or as an advocate for education, addiction treatment or developmental disability programs, or simply as Rich. My colleagues also came to know my husband, Mark.

Madaleno and his husband are registered to receive the few domestic partnership benefits provided under state law currently, but he’s seeking the more than 400 state benefits offered only to legally married couples.

This year and last, with 52 of my colleagues, I introduced legislation to allow people to enter into civil marriage contracts regardless of gender. Unfortunately, this bill has yet to appear on a voting list in either chamber. This legislative inertia doesn’t have to be the end of the story, as I will explain in a moment. But, at a personal level, it has caused me to rethink this basic aspect of my public service: Until more legislators are willing to stand with me, there is no question that I must speak on behalf of my family and the thousands like us. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Truth ….. must be clothed with flesh and blood, or it cannot tell its whole story.”

Madaleno has introduced the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act.  Read the full op-ed here.

Advocates for marriage once again fought for equality in Annapolis on Wednesday. State Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr., the only openly gay member of the state Senate, introduced the Religous Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would give same-sex couples the right to marry, but would not force clergy to perform marriage ceremonies that conflict with their religions, according to The Washington Blade.

“Just 45 minutes ago I was in the Senate chamber, one of 47 equals with all of the rights and privileges I share with my colleagues as an equal member of the state Senate,” said at a press conference. “In another 45 minutes, I will be before the Senate Judicial Proceedings committee as a second class citizen in the state of Maryland. One of thousands of gay and lesbian people who is unable to marry.”

The Blade reports:

Dr. Chris Beyrer, the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights, said denying same sex couples the right to marry harms community health.

“And we know for certain that lesbian and gay individuals suffer harm to their physical and psychological health, and to their relationships and quality of life, as result of the shame, isolation and stigma accrued from their social and legal disenfranchisement,” Beyrer said in written testimony for the bill.

In 2007, Maryland’s highest court ruled that lawmakers may change state law to allow same-sex couples to marry. A similar gay marriage bill was introduced last year, but lawmakers have yet to vote on such a proposal.

Nonetheless, Madaleno said he believes progress has been made since the first gay marriage bill was introduced in Maryland about a decade ago by another lawmaker.

“When that bill was put in, she received so many death threats she received state police protection for a week,” Madaleno. “Here we are a decade later, now we have more than 50 co-sponsors on our bill and we’re able to have a civil discussion.”