Equality Maryland prepares for November battle at ballot box
Brauchli to replace oft-criticized Downie in September
Gay couples close to ‘legal parity with marriage under law’
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Friday, May 16, 2008
The District of Columbia’s first gay homeless youth shelter is set to open this summer, according to officials at Transgender Health Empowerment.
“It’ll be the first GLBT youth housing in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia or Pennsylvania area,” said Brian Watson, director of programs for THE. The organization started working on the project several months ago when officials recognized a need.
“We operate a GLBT drop-in center and over the past couple of years … we’ve seen an increase in GLBT youth who are homeless,” Watson said.
The group advocated for funding and discovered that the city’s budget included money for youth housing.
“There was a special clause put in by Councilmember Jim Graham that some of the money goes in for youth who are LGBT,” Watson said. The funding hasn’t entirely been determined, but Watson says THE will end up with more than $200,000 from the city.
An eight-bedroom house in Northeast near Kenilworth Avenue has been purchased for the shelter, which will be named the Wanda Alston House, after a local lesbian leader who was killed three years ago. Watson said the group sought permission from Alston’s family regarding use of her name.
Services at the house will include counseling, HIV testing and housing for up to eight youth. Watson anticipates a June 1 opening, but the official announcement and date will come May 18 at THE’s annual pageant fundraiser at the Bachelor’s Mill, 1104 8th St, S.E.
Catholics leaders in Maryland are calling on Gov. Martin O’Malley to veto two bills that grant gays hospital visitation rights and tax breaks.
In letters distributed earlier this month, Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien said the bills “would seriously undermine and clearly set a precedent for a further erosion of the legal status of marriage.” He asked Catholics to urge O’Malley to veto the bills.
Christine Hansen, an O’Malley spokesperson, said Wednesday that the governor is planning to sign both bills despite the protests.
Approved before the session ended April 7, the Health Care Facility Visitation & Medical Decisions bill grants gay Marylanders the right to visit a partner in the hospital and make certain medical decisions for them. It passed the Senate 30-17 and the House 88-46.
Another bill, which adds domestic partners to a list of blood and legal relatives that are exempted from recordation and transfer taxes, passed the Senate 26-21 and the House 86-47.
Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, said he found it “disgraceful” that the Maryland Catholic Conference opposed “virtually any protections” for the state’s same-sex couples.
“On the one hand, the Catholic Conference argues against civil marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, and at the same time, they begrudge even the most basic forms of familial rights and responsibilities,” he said. “I find it hard to imagine that this is the mindset of most Catholics in Maryland, which is probably why the Catholic Conference resorts to the hysterical rhetoric they use.”
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