With legislators voting to approve same-sex marriage in Maine and New Hampshire last week, the momentum for change in marriage laws is building. Soon, Rhode Island may be the only New England state that does not recognize gay marriages.
Iowa already permits them. California did briefly. Last week, members of the City Council in Washington, D.C. voted overwhelmingly to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
Maryland, where the law requires marriage to be between a man and a woman and where attempts to overturn that requirement have been bottled up in legislative committees, could yet join the national trend. But it will require Gov. Martin O'Malley to demonstrate more than the casual interest he has shown in legalizing civil unions, let alone gay marriage, in the past.
What Mr. O'Malley must do is this: Ask Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler for a legal opinion determining whether Maryland law permits the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. And if Mr. Gansler finds that it does, the governor should immediately sign an executive order directing state agencies to adjust their rules and regulations to do so.
New York Gov. David Paterson issued such an order last year. Whether Maryland's opposite-sex marriage law precludes doing so isn't clear.
Certainly, Maryland recognizes marriages licensed in states where age requirements differ. Other forms of licenses are recognized here, too, despite legal variations. Just because the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration requires drivers to parallel park doesn't cause the state to reject a license issued in Ohio where that skill isn't tested.
And Mr. Gansler is likely to give that interpretation of the law every opportunity to prevail. He has publicly endorsed legalizing same-sex marriage.
Admittedly, this would not be the final word on the subject. To fully embrace equal rights for gay and lesbian people, the state must eventually pass a law explicitly authorizing same-sex marriage. But an executive order (and a subsequent demonstration of its positive effects) would help blunt opposition from social conservatives and certain clergy who have vigorously opposed gay rights issues in the past.
No doubt Mr. O'Malley will be tempted to shy away from such a move and see it as unhelpful to his re-election chances next year. The governor's prospective opponents are unlikely to endorse gay marriage.
But there is one inescapable reason to do it: Because it's the right thing to do. Same-sex couples and their children should no longer be treated as second-class citizens. Interim measures the state has adopted - changes in how the inheritance tax is applied to domestic partners, for instance - are woefully inadequate.
Maryland is a progressive state, and voter registration numbers suggest it is growing more so all the time. Same-sex marriage is nothing less than a civil rights issue, and citizens of the Free State have historically favored equality - if their leaders have the courage to rally them to the cause.
