Thanks Rona, Equality Hits the Housing Market

According to the Washington Post, the Maryland Senate has passed a bill granting same-sex couples property rights equivalent to married couples:

Same-sex couples would be eligible for property benefits enjoyed by married couples under a measure to which the Senate gave preliminary approval yesterday.

The bill exempts members of same-sex couples from paying recordation taxes and state and county transfer taxes when they transfer a home or other property to their partner or partner's family members. The measure also applies to opposite-sex unmarried couples.

Our own Paul Gordon explained why this matters in a press release by Equality Maryland:

Paul Gordon of Montgomery County told legislators that he still isn’t listed on the deed to the home that he shares with his partner because of the prohibitive transfer taxes that same-sex couples have to pay, but that married couples and a slew of other relatives are exempt from.

“My partner Rick and I met back in 1992, a couple of years after he’d bought a house in Silver Spring,” Paul testified. “That house – our home – is still in his name only. And I live in fear that I could lose it if something happened to him. In 2005, I told a House committee how Rick and I had just spent three weeks as a family with his mother in intensive care and decided as a family to end her life-support. But Maryland says that Rick and I are not a family. Maryland says we are no different than two total strangers. And when I testified in 2005, Maryland was forcing us to choose: If we wanted to put my name on the title of our home, that meant we could not afford a gravestone for Rick’s mother. We picked the gravestone, and three years later, I still have no ownership interest in my own home, and I could lose it if something happens to Rick,” Paul stated. He added, “Current law imposes a financial punishment on innocent families and puts us at risk of losing our homes. It’s cruel. It’s wrong. And you can put a stop to it.”

Meanwhile, Alex Mooney continues his hysterical opposition to this mild measure:

It advanced after vigorous opposition from conservative Republicans, who said the General Assembly should not deny needed revenue to local governments to give unmarried couples a tax benefit.

"Do we really want to encourage people to shack up to promote the homosexual agenda?" asked Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick). Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Baltimore County) said the bill is "really just about money" same-sex couples are seeking to save in property transactions.

But the bill's lead sponsor, Sen. Rona E. Kramer (D-Montgomery), said the financial security of couples who happen not to be married is at stake. Someone who is not on the deed of his home could lose the property if his partner dies, Kramer said.

Mooney actually appears to believe that people will turn gay or lesbian due to this measure. For everyone I know, sexual preference isn't determined by state property tax law. Perhaps Alex is different from the rest of us.