Md. AG Says State Will Recognize Same-Sex Marriages Performed Elsewhere
Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler says in a legal opinion that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Under Gansler’s opinion, married same-sex couples would no longer have to register as domestic partners to get benefits from state agencies that are accorded to heterosexual couples, the Washington Post reports.
Gansler was responding to a request for a legal opinion by an openly gay legislator. The state now joins a handful of others, including New York and Washington, D.C., that recognize gay marriages from Iowa and four Eastern states, the story says.
Gansler said in a news conference that his opinion should require equal treatment for gay married couples from state agencies, “unless and until a court or the legislature decides differently.”
“It’s not that foreign of a concept,” he said. “I mean, it’s just people. It’s just like any other heterosexual couples.”
