Church wants gay bill vetoed

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ANNAPOLIS — Catholic leaders in Maryland are asking Gov. Martin O'Malley to veto legislation defining domestic partnerships in Maryland.

Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat and a Catholic, aligned himself with the church in his opposition to the death penalty, but has split over issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

At a time when communities of faith and society at large strive to address the devastating results of the dissolution of the family structure, it would prove counterproductive to allow [the bills] to become law, said Richard J. Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference.

Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O'Brien wrote a letter to Mr. O'Malley asking for his veto, but a copy of the letter was unavailable yesterday.

Mr. O'Malley is expected to sign the legislation, spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said yesterday.

That's what all of our public officials face: the need to balance religious beliefs with the elective office they hold, Mr. Abbruzzese said. In this case it is balancing public interest and equal protection under the law to provide medical decision-making rights to domestic partners.

The governor is expected to hold his next bill signing Tuesday. Bills passed by the General Assembly automatically become law unless they are vetoed by May 27.

One measure extends dental coverage and medical visitation rights to domestic partners. The second exempts domestic partners from having to pay taxes when the title of a home is transferred from one to the other. Married couples do not pay property transfer taxes.

The domestic partnership bills were the only major pieces of legislation to break past a stalemate on contentious social issues at the Statehouse during the recently concluded 2008 session.

Gay rights groups hailed passage of the measures but called them incremental steps.

Catholic leaders and gay marriage opponents have criticized the state's definition of domestic partnership as too broad and open to fraud and abuse.

Mr. O'Malley has joined the Catholic Conference on capital punishment, occasionally repeating some of the same social justice arguments the Catholic Church cites against it.

The governor also leaned heavily on another Irish Catholic lawmaker last year, Republican Sen. Alex X. Mooney, as part of a high-profile but unsuccessful push to repeal the death penalty.