Delegates Tiffany Alston and Jill Carter also had harsh words about the process:
"This process has not been what it should be," said Delegate Tiffany Alston, D-Prince George’s, who had signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill but ended up voting against it. "This has not been the deliberative process that we normally engage in in this committee."
Alston, who was one of the two delegates who skipped a scheduled vote on Tuesday, said her constituents did not support gay marriage, but would support civil unions. She introduced an amendment for civil unions that was rejected, and she ended up voting against the bill, which was approved without any amendments.
"To tell us that we are not allowed to amend something if we earnestly believe we should be able to is wrong, and to tell us we have to vote a certain way is wrong," Alston said.
... Morgan Meneses-Sheets, executive director for Equality Maryland, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian Marylanders, described the committee vote as an important step forward while acknowledging the vote could be close in the full House.
"It’s not a done deal, so we’re just going to keep working," Meneses-Sheets said. (source)
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