Towson’s campus and community news source Online daily at thetowerlight.com
Thursday, 2-23-12
Md. poised to pass
gay marriage bill
Illustration by Justin Fischer/ The Towerlight
Balt. County bill bans
transgender discrimination
JORDAN RUSSELL
News Editor
By the end of this week, Maryland
could be the eighth state to legalize gay
marriage.
A bill that would legalize same-sex
marriage in Maryland passed 72-67
in the House of Delegates last week.
President of the Maryland Senate
Thomas V. Mike Miller granted the bill
discussion be moved until Thursday
and said the bill will be open for
additional amendments, according to a
spokeswoman in Miller's office.
“Everyone has their own individual
needs, so what we’re going to do is
come in tomorrow, and come in tomor¬
row afternoon, and if necessary, come
in Friday afternoon to deal with this
issue," Miller said in a recording on the
Maryland General Assembly website.
“I don’t anticipate a single vote has
changed, but if it has, fine. That’s up
to the body. We debated this at great
length.”
Amy Becker, an assistant professor
in the department of mass communica¬
tion and communication studies, and
Dietram Scheufele from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, co-authored a
research article in June 2011 about gay
marriage and public opinion toward
controversial political issues.
The article, “New Voters, New
Outlook? Predispositions, Social
Networks, and the Changing Politics
of Gay Civil Rights," focuses on public
acceptance of homosexuality and sup¬
port for same-sex marriage.
Becker used two different data sets
to provide an in-depth look into influ¬
ences concerning the public acceptance
of homosexuality and policy support of
same-sex marriage, along with political
engagement between age groups.
One highlight from Becker’s arti¬
cle involves gender and acceptance of
same-sex relationships. According to
the article, men were significantly less
likely to publicly accept homosexuality.
Of the 47 Maryland senators, 11 are
female and 36 are male.
The article also said there isn’t a
large difference of gender acceptance
See LAW, page 8
LAUREN SLAVIN
Editor-in-chief
On Feb. 21, the Baltimore
County Council passed Bill 3-12,
which prohibits discrimination
based on gender identity in
housing, employment, financing,
education and public accommo¬
dations.
The legislation comes almost
one year after transgender
woman Chrissy Polis was assault¬
ed in a Rosedale McDonald's
bathroom, which some members
of Towson University’s Queer
Student Union attended a rally
for in April.
Senior criminal justice and
psychology major Adrienne
Luciano said she was surprised
the bill was given the amount of
attention is was with the pend¬
ing same-sex marriage legislation
in the Maryland Senate.
"People didn't really even
know about this bill. A lot of
mainstream LGB [lesbian, gay
and bisexual] people said, 'We’ll
worry about the anti-discrimi¬
nation bill later,’ when a lot of
people’s fear was that people
supporting the equal rights
bill would ... stop supporting
[the anti-discrimination bill],"
Luciana said. "The trans people
would have nothing to do but be
left in the dark.”
The bill was approved 5-2,
with Councilman David Marks,
who represents the Towson area,
one of two votes against the
measure.
Marks said he felt many of
the protections in the bill were
already written into law. For
example, hate crime legislation
addressed Polis’ attack.
He also didn’t want to pass
the bills with the series of
amendments the Council debat¬
ed. One amendment would have
explicitly exempted bathrooms,
dressing rooms and lockers from
equal protection. The law was
left intentionally vague, stat¬
ing protections do not apply to
"distinctly private or personal"
facilities.
See EQUAL, page 8
Football
players’ social
media rights
re-instated
LAUREN SLAVIN
Editor-in-Chief
SAM SMITH
Associate Sports Editor
After a temporary ban, Towson football
players are using Twitter again.
As of Feb. 17, football players such
as safety Jordan Dangerfield, quarterback
Grant Enders, and offensive lineman Eric
Pike are active on the social media plat¬
form.
"I got to get my twitter flowing again
#ASAP," Dangerfield Tweeted Feb. 17.
"#TUFootball" was Pike’s first Tweet
after the ban was lifted.
Grant Enders’ new Twitter account is
protected, meaning only confirmed follow¬
ers can see his posts.
The ban, issued by football Head Coach
Rob Ambrose, stemmed from a Tweet by
Lehigh receiver Ryan Spadola, in which
he used a racial slur the week before the
Mountain Hawks’ playoff game against
the Tigers.
I praise Mike Waddell for
his decision to abide by the
U.S. constitution. You have
to treat all speech the same.
You can’t create different
rules for communication.
It’s the same rule, whether
you’re in real world or
virtual world.
BRADLEY SHEAR
Lawyer , Law Office of
Bradley S. Shear
Because of the Tweet, Spadola was sus¬
pended for Lehigh’s second-round match
against North Dakota State after an NCAA
investigation.
During their absence from the social
networking site, the players were educated
on how to protect themselves from the
possible risk of suspension, according to
Director of Athletics Mike Waddell.
"It was never a permanent ban. To the
best of my knowledge, [Ambrose’s] inten¬
tion the whole time was to educate them,
and we worked with Coach [Ambrose] to
get proper training for the guys," Waddell
said. "Now that they are up to speed and
doing things that the rest of our student
athletes are doing, 1 don’t think that this is
a real issue. It’s all about personal respon¬
sibility and making sure that they protect
themselves."
Ambrose was not available for comment.
See TWEET, page 22
