Last month Governor Martin O'Malley signed the Civil Marriage Protection Act into law. Under his tireless leadership—and that of key legislators and the large coalition of gay and straight organizations—committed gay and lesbian couples will be able to marry on January 1, 2013—if all goes well this fall.

I'm about to break down seriously racist shit that goes through my head. Reader discretion: I'm about to get ugly.

As gay marriage looms over Maryland and we're all enjoying a fool's paradise of imagined assimilation and social equality, a disastrous bill that destroyed our rights has already been signed INTO LAW the LAST day of 2011.

Editor's Note: The following editorial was written in response to Bill 3-12 introduced by Baltimore County Councilman Tom Quirk on January 17. Also known as "An Act Concerning Human Relations" this bill aims to protect people from discrimination in the areas of Public Accommodations, Employment, Housing, Education, and Finance on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression."

Originally published by Center Maryland (CenterMaryland.Org)

The following is the text, verbatim, of the paid death notice for my mom that appeared in the March 31 New York Times:

KURTZ–Lynn. Died at home March 30. A musician and educator, she is survived by her spouse Elli Ross, daughter Eliza Kurtz, son Josh Kurtz, daughterin- law Caryl Ashrey and granddaughters Haley Beidel, Zoe Kurtz and Genevieve Kurtz.

I never told a lot of people that my mom was gay. It’s not that it was a big secret—it was just never a big deal. She was my mom, and I loved her. My mom never really “came out.” That wasn’t her style. She just went about her business and lived her life the way she wanted to.

In 1989, a few friends gathered in a Baltimore church basement to cook and package healthy meals to go. The purpose? Provide lifesaving nutrition to people dying from AIDS, who often suffered in rejection and isolation. Working on an initial grant of just $8,000, Moveable Feast was born, subsisting on a mere three employees and serving just ten clients two days per week.

Fast forward 22 years: Today, Moveable Feast, now hailing from a new state-of-the-art facility in East Baltimore, serves homebound, low-income Marylanders living with HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and other life-threatening conditions. Meals are meticulously designed by a team of three registered dietitians, and prepared in-house by thousands of volunteers, supervised by an experienced kitchen staff.

I don’t spend very much time thinking about how I self-identify based on my sexuality. Perhaps it’s because I’m a lawyer, but when asked, I view sexual orientation based on the facts that are readily available. In other words,I understand that how a person presents is generally how they are perceived, regardless of how that person identifies.

It is almost impossible to think of any good that could come out of the horror and tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We must never become complacent about the devastation HIV/AIDS continues to wreak here in Baltimore and around the world. Nonetheless, it is important that we recognize some of the enormous positive impacts that the epidemic had in the midst of all the misery.

My name is Owen Smith and I am currently working for Equality Maryland as their Field Organizer for gender equality and gender identity issues. I strongly believe that this year we have enough support to pass the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act or HB 235. When this bill is passed, it will prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit.

Currently, anti-discrimination protections do not protect our transgender community. We’re able to be fired because we’re transgender. We can be denied housing because of our gender identity or how we choose to express our gender identity. Credit card companies and banks can deny us credit because we’re transgender. That’s why we’re trying to add these gender identity protections. In many cases, these protections are a matter of life and death for the transgender or genderqueer community. This bill is the first step, of many, that Equality Maryland is taking to ensure the protection of transgender Marylanders.

A recent survey by National Center for Transgender Equality (NTCE) and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) suggests that our transgender community faces insurmountable obstacles daily. One in five transgender Marylanders has been fired from their jobs just for being who they are. Ninety percent of transgender Marylanders have experienced harassment on the job. These statistics, compared to the national homeless and unemployment rate is absolutely staggering. Can you believe these are the numbers in a state that considers itself “free”?

Our transgender community needs these life or death protections NOW! As a transgender man here in Maryland, I face -- almost daily -- these horrible and inhumane types of discrimination. I want to share one of my experiences with you.

I once had a job working at a local coffee shop in Baltimore. One of the owners would continuously harass and disrespect me in front of my co-workers and the customers of that establishment. He would shout, "Hey he-she!" across the shop. He would yell in my face about how I was not "man enough" to do extreme heavy lifting. He would call me a girl and make fun of the fact that I do not have a big part of the male anatomy. It got so horrible that one day he was shouting at me on the floor of the coffee shop making fun of the fact that I was a "he-she" when he physically assaulted me and shoved me into the refrigerator.

I know that this story is all too common in our transgender community. We at Equality Maryland hear these too often to count. We have the opportunity to make history right now. We can protect our transgender friends and community members in vital ways. Marylanders everywhere can right now help save lives, just by passing HB 235.

This legislation sets the stage to provide a more accessible understanding of our community. We are gaining major strides in protecting basic needs of transgender Marylanders and are creating the fundamental infrastructure to keep building on the momentum for transgender rights. With HB 235 we really can create the change we want to experience, discrimination free, in the Free State. 

Please join me and support HB 235 -- the first step to creating a world that is safe for the entire LGBT community.