Woohoo Maryland!

Maryland just passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, the eighth state to legalize it. Kudos to all the legislators who voted in favor, but particularly Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who really put himself out there as a key leader in this campaign and shepherded this bill to passage.

As is becoming custom, the law will soon hit the referendum process, as opponents seek to overturn the law and restore the prior state of inequality. Maryland is an interesting context because it is so Democratic, but also features a substantial African-American population which is skittish about marriage equality. It will be interesting to see if conservatives can draw enough cross-over votes to take this law down. But my instinct is that they won't be able to, and Maryland will see gay marriage approved not just be the legislature, but directly by the people as well.