Maryland’s House Speaker shut down the Assembly on Thursday, nine minutes into the session, just as delegates were about to take up a constitutional amendment protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Afterward, Democrats in the Judiciary Committee effectively killed the bill. Pro-family advocates are now looking to revive the bill by turning to the Senate.

“It’s a sad day for Maryland, but we aren’t about to let one man destroy marriage,” said Evalena Gray, Concerned Women for America’s Maryland State Director, who lobbied for the bill on Tuesday in Annapolis. “Paraphrasing John Paul Jones, ‘We have not yet begun to fight.’”

It was the first time in modern Maryland history that any Speaker had unilaterally shut down the House in order to prevent passage of a bill. The issue had escalated fiercely since January 20, when Baltimore Circuit Judge M. Brooke Murdock struck down Maryland’s marriage law.

Democrats fear that if the potent marriage issue is on the ballot in November, it would help the re-election chances of Republican Gov. Robert Erhlich and the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, according to The Washington Times.

Pro-family activists, including bill sponsor Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel County), were furious. Dwyer characterized Busch as a “tyrant” and vowed to continue the effort to pass a marriage amendment. According to The Washington Post, “Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert) said he had collected the 47 signatures he needed to bypass the committee process and put the measure before the full chamber.”

Rather than allow that, Busch abruptly shut everything down. Later, after Democrats amended the bill to include creation of civil unions, the marriage sponsors withdrew their support and the committee killed the measure. Del. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Dist. 11, Baltimore County), a committee member, said he and fellow Democrats killed the marriage bill because it amounted to an attempt to “bash gays.” Three committee Democrats – Kevin Kelly (Dist. 1B), Darryl Kelley (Dist. 26) and Theodore Sophocleus (Dist. 32) – resisted the move and voted with the pro-marriage Republicans. Four Democrats signed the petition to bring the bill to the floor (Sophocleus, Kelly, Rosetta Parker (Dist. 47) and Joan Cadden (Dist. 31).

Del. Jean Cryor (Dist. 15) was the only Republican in Prince George’s or Montgomery counties to sign the petition.

Here’s a summary of the events from Doug Stiegler of the Family Protection Lobby:

I was in the House Chamber this morning when the most surprising and disturbing event took place.  The session opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, the Opening Prayer, the recognition of the State Teacher of the Year and the County Teachers of the Year.  Another recognition was supposed to take place of school students who had been awarded recognition for reading a large number of books. 

Before they were even in the gallery to be applauded, the Speaker of the House, Michael Busch, called on the Majority Leader, who immediately called for adjournment until Friday.  This stunned the assembled Delegates, the visitors in the balconies and the media.  No other business scheduled was conducted, the children were left out in the hall with no opportunity to see the Assembly in process or to be recognized and the opportunity for the bill that would allow you, the citizens of Maryland, to vote on such a critical issue as Marriage was denied a floor hearing.

“We’re not giving up by a long shot,” said Tres Kerns, executive director of Votemarriage.org, a group that is backing the state constitutional marriage amendment sponsored by Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel County) and Sen. Janet Greenip (R-Anne Arundel County).

“Speaker Busch thinks he can walk away from this,” Kerns said. “He’s wrong.” Kerns’ group is calling for Busch’s resignation and is beginning a petition drive to that effect.

For Robert Knight’s February 1, 2006, written testimony to the Maryland House Judiciary Committee, click here. http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/mdknight013106.pdf