Monday, February 4, 2013
Sens. Richard Madaleno and Jamie Raskin, both of Montgomery County, are co-sponsoring a bill that would prevent discrimination based on gender identity.
For the first time, a bill that would make it illegal for Maryland businesses, companies and housing providers to discriminate against transgender people has the support of Senate President Thomas V. Miller (D-Calvert and Prince George's Counties), creating hope in the state's transgender community. “The protections in this bill are long overdue,” Equality Maryland Executive Director Carrie Evans told Washington Blade. “We are confident the General Assembly will demonstrate, as they did in 2012, that we are a state that treats all of its citizens with dignity and equality under the law.” (Evans refers to an act to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland, which was signed into law in March 2012 and upheld by voters last November.) The bill, …
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Lawmakers from Baltimore City and Montgomery County call for stricter gun laws.
In the aftermath of the shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut last week, leaders from Baltimore City and Montgomery County are calling for stricter gun laws in the state of Maryland. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Sen. Brian Frosh and Sen. Jamie Raskin were among those who attended a press conference at the Episcopal Ecumenical Council Center in Baltimore on Wednesday to announce support for legislation aimed at curbing access to firearms. "[This] legislation is intended to address the epidemic of gun violence that has swept the country. The mass killings that we’ve experienced in theaters, in places of worship and most recently and most horribly in an elementary school," Frosh said. "We have a public health crisis that stems …
Monday, December 3, 2012
About 150 dancers celebrated the state senator's big day by breaking out in dance to "Do You Love Me," the Gazette reports.
Although the doo-wop song's famous refrain asks, "Do you love me/now that I can dance," State Sen. Jamie Raskin, who's birthday was celebrated with a flash mob to The Contours classic, still can't. "The big joke is that I can't dance," he told the Gazette newspaper after about 150 people gathered in downtown Silver Spring for a commemorative flash mob. Raskin, a Democrat who represents parts of Silver Spring in the Maryland General Assembly, worked with downtown Silver Spring-based Maryland Youth Ballet to cooridinate the event, which started with about half-a-dozen of the company's advanced dancers before many more eventually joined the routine. Watch the performance, captured on video by a YouTube user.
Julie Smith
8:35 am on Friday, February 15, 2013
Because dogs and cats aren't people as these are, and as such are as deserving of the same protections as everyone else. more ›