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VICTORY: Radical transgender bill stopped in Maryland!

POSTED: March 21, 2013

Just like in Massachusetts, next step in Maryland after "gay marriage" was a radical "transgender rights" bill.

Two years ago the homosexual lobby first tried to pass a transgender bill, but the Maryland pro-family forces stopped them cold.

This year, after their recent "gay marriage" win, they introduced an even stronger transgender bill. They felt it would be an easy ride. But thanks to a hard pro-family stand, it didn't quite work out that way.

The Maryland State House.

Last Thursday, March 14, the state Senate Judicial Proceeding Committee voted 6-5 to kill Bill S449 introduced this year by the homosexual-transgender lobby.

Bill S449 was many ways even more onerous than the one recently passed in Massachusetts. It extended transtenderism to "public accommodations" as well as including a wide range of employment and commerce mandates, and even prohibited requiring a genetic test of employees! Although the bill did not specifically mention schools, its provisions could easily be applied to educational institutions.

Strong pro-family testimony

The bill had a large number of co-sponsors and was supported by the usual list of homosexual-bisexual-transgender-questioning groups, labor unions, pagan churches, pro-abortion groups, and other left-wing advocacy organizations. Virtually all of them converged in the Maryland State House for the Feb. 26 public hearing.

But from what we heard, the pro-family testimony was very strong. Testifiers included Peter Sprigg of Family Research Council, Elaine McDermott and Ruth Jacobs of Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government, and Rev. Derek McCoy of the Maryland Marriage Alliance.

Sprigg's testimony pulled no punches:

"This bill will force the state and private actors -- employers, landlords and others who provide public services -- to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality. Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better."

The back story: Shuffling of committee members & pressure from voters

Last year the Senate President suddenly removed one of the Judiciary Committee members, a conservative black pastor who had been on the Committee for many years, and replaced him with a very liberal senator. It was believed that this was to make it easier to pass the "gay marriage" bill, which they eventually did that year. This year, the black pastor was brought back on and the liberal taken off. In addition to this, one of the pro-"gay marriage" Committee members who had gotten a lot of heat from his more conservative district about that, voted against the transgender bill, to the anger of the homosexual lobby. That didn't necessarily bring it to a majority, but along with the strong pro-family testimony it may have made a difference.

As a result, the pro-gay Huffington Post was in a big snit over the whole thing.

Congratulations to Maryland!