NOT COOL: Senate President Mike Miller Calls Maryland Marriage Equality Push "An Attack on the Family"

Maryland Juice was just getting excited to watch marriage equality legislation pass the Maryland House and the Senate this year. After all, just last year, the Senate passed the bill, and proponents were only a few votes short in the House. Now, Governor O'Malley is putting his full weight behind the effort, and Senate President Mike Miller is looking to pass the bill through the Senate quickly. The Washington Post even wrote an article today with the following headline: "Same-sex marriage could get early vote in Md. Senate"

So why is Senate President Mike Miller calling marriage equality "an attack on the family?" 

The liberal bloggers at Think Progress (along with legions of Maryland residents) are up in arms about the embarrassing news. Yesterday they reported:

Maryland Senate President Mike Miller (D) spoke out against Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) push for marriage equality, describing the effort as “an attack on traditional families” this morning on The Marc Steiner Show. “I don’t want to sound like one of the Republican candidates for President,” Miller joked, “but I am what I am.” Miller said he would vote against any legislation allowing gays and lesbians to marry, but promised to hold an open vote on the issue and predicted it would pass in the Senate.

They provided the following remarks from Miller to provide context for his statement:

MILLER: "I’m a historian and I look at civilizations, I study civilizations, I read history every night. And I see it’s an attack on the family, I think it’s an attack on traditional families. That’s the way I see it."

Think Progress provided the following audio to go along with their story:




Maryland Juice previously noted that State Senator Jim Brochin became a marriage equality supporter after hearing hateful testimony from opponents to LGBT rights.  Is this sort of statement cool coming from a Democratic leader in 2012? My two cents: Democrats always need to keep raising the bar and striving for greater inclusiveness.

P.S. Don't forget to contact Sen. Brochin and ask him to support death penalty repeal.