Eighteen pro-lifers participating in the Maryland Face the Truth Tour were arrested without warning by Hartford County State Troopers in the city of Bel Air, Maryland on Friday, August 1, 2008. The group stood peacefully on public property and did not “march” into the street as one news organization erroneously reported. Without warning, an estimated twenty patrol cars arrived on the scene and began arresting pro-life participants without a word. Those arrested were not told what they were being charged with, nor were they read their rights.

The Baltimore City Council has passed a resolution supporting a separate state Senate bill that would give same-sex couples the right to a civil marriage.

The city resolution, introduced by Councilman Bill Henry of the 4th District, covering the York Road corridor, passed 9-3 on March 17. One council member abstained, and two were absent.

[Montgomery County, MD - 3/7/08] – An all-volunteer, grassroots organization opposing Montgomery County, Maryland’s newly passed ‘gender identity’ bill has been notified their referendum petition has been certified by the local Board of Elections, clearing the way for the measure’s repeal to be considered by county voters in November of 2008.

If enacted, the bill would add ‘gender identity’ to the County’s non-discrimination code which covers public accommodation, employment, housing, taxicab and cable services. The measure loosely defines gender identity as “an individual’s actual or perceived gender, including a person’s gender related appearance, expression, image, identity, or behavior, whether or not those gender related characteristics differ from the characteristics customarily associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.” This means that a male appearing as or perceiving he is a female, regardless of his DNA, anatomy, and chromosomal makeup, could gain the legal right to call himself a woman, and use the woman’s facility in any public accommodation.

Coed locker rooms could be a reality now that a new statute to allow people to “choose a gender” has been approved in Maryland.

But the measure, given the green light by elected officials in Montgomery County, will soon be the subject of a court challenge, according to a non-profit public-interest law firm.

A surge of outrage is developing in Maryland, where the governing council in Montgomery County is planning to vote on a plan to open the doors of its public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities to those who “perceive” they are that gender. The county plan, Bill 23-07 specifically would augment the state’s non-discrimination plan by adding “gender identity” as a protected class.