- Sen. Jim Brochin
Maryland State Sen. Jim Brochin, a Democrat, used to say that while he supported civil unions for same-sex couples, he did not support full marriage rights for those couples. This week, he changed his mind and said he will vote for legislation giving full marriage rights to same-sex couples.
Why? Because he listened.
First of all, Brochin listened to the stories of same-sex couples when they testified during public hearings in favor of the proposed Religious Marriage and Civil Marriage Protection Act. But most importantly, he listened to those who testified against the bill. And he was appalled by what he heard.
“The people who are against the bill, all they did was demonize homosexuality, call them pedophiles, androids, and I just, I can’t oppose the bill and be on the same side as people who would do that,” Brochin told AM 630 WMAL radio in explaining his change of heart. “It’s destructive, it’s insulting to the same-sex families who are trying to raise their kids.”
The bill needs 24 votes to pass the Maryland Senate and 29 to avoid any debate. Brochin’s decision makes him the 21st senator to publicly pledge support, and he said this week he believes the bill has a good chance of passing.
Right on. I’m straight, but not narrow.
I hope the other’s open their ears as well and see what this man heard. It was horrible. We are better than this as a people. Ignorance was in their speech and it back fired on them. I just hope the good people of Maryland see through the lies and make the correct choice. I know that when I look back it will show I was on the right side of history when I vote.
Yes William I can see it their way. You ask them to do everything you ask us to do, pay taxes, serve on juries, and lately, serve in the military now that DADT is kaput. And they want parallel citizenship. Now.
They are not completely equal to heterosexuals but otherwise parallel as human beings. A modern multi-faith democracy has to acknowledge that. A constitutional democracy has to govern to the greatest common denominator, and that means restructuring marriage this way.
When people started to say men and women are equal, maybe they didn’t foresee this, but they had better put their money where their mouth is. Further unforeseen logical consequences, in addition to women in combat and being drafted, will include many women paying child support and alimony, and in some cases, losing their own born children to their ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands. No wonder some women had the gall to be photographed in my high school history textbook: “Stop ERA”, when you think long, hard, and logically, and ask if you want to go there.
BTW, A single-faith theocracy could sidestep the gay issue for Christians, but Christians are not called to live apart, they are called to go to the world and spread the word. That means living in America and other places where the unsaved are: you can’t reach them except in person.
Incidentally I hate living in Virginia. It makes me feel like living in Nazi Germany, especially when we had a goodbye party for a lesbian co-worker leaving for Seattle (that makes me scratch my head, why is the state of Washington gay friendly?). I felt like I was watching a Jewish friend leave the third Reich.
But my job at the time was 15 minutes on foot from my apartment and I hated the two hour round trip commute out of Greenbelt. And I was robbed there. My neighborhood felt like a herpes outbreak surpressed by constant police patrols like Valtrex.
The best thing that could have happened to PG County was the resumption of the draft. The 18 to 25 demographic going straight into the Army or Marines. Let them be Afghanistan’s problem.
The only thing you can say for certain about homosexuals is that all of them are attracted to the same gender. It stops there.
In “And The Band Played On” more than one gay figure opposed promiscuity. Many homosexuals are Christians, some trying to live lives without sex to please God. (Amazing- how do you do that?)
The opponents owe many people an apology for assigning characteristics to an entire group of people that do not belong to them.
And there is enough evil in straightdom to go around. Evil is everyplace and belongs to no one group.
You’d have to destroy human life on Earth to get rid of all evil. Note: We Christians believe Jesus has a cure for human evil.
So proud of my childhood friend! Thank you Jimmy for being brave in a storm of bigotry. Your old pal from Ft. Garrison, Lizzy Annenberg Zinn, from the Great State of Texas. May we be brave enough to follow your lead.
In CT, where we passed a civil union law in 2005, and a marriage equality law in 2008, hundreds of couples come here to wed each years.
Cheers, Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace, Red Studio Farm, Washington Green, CT USA
PS: My spouse and I had both, and we’ve been together for almost 32 years…yet it seems just like yesterday that we met on a beach on Fire Island Pines…..
Alright then, thank you, Senator! It’s people like you who make me believe that their is still a beating heart in American government.
To the Senator I simply say – thank you for listening with some common sense and an air of human decency. It’s NOT our support of the bill that is out of the ordinary. The support and the comments that come out against homosexuals as a community and/or group usually falls under the extreme category. Those peeps are NUTS!
Thank you Sen. Jim Brochin, thank you!