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Shortly after the failure of Maryland's marriage equality bill and a gender identity measure, Equality Maryland is facing shutdown over financial problems. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly:

Equality Maryland could shut down operations at the end of June if it does not collect $20,000 to $25,000 in donations to cover operating expenses, according to members of the statewide LGBT-advocacy organization's board. Those expenses include rent for its Baltimore office headquarters, as well as salary for current staff. Equality Maryland has two full-time staff members, while interim Executive Director Lynne Bowman earns roughly $7,000 per month, employed as an independent contractor. Charles Butler, board president of Equality Maryland Inc., the lobbying arm of Equality Maryland, says the organization had ''gotten away from engaging the community as far as fundraising goes to cover operating costs'' under past leadership.

Yesterday Equality Maryland issued a plea for donations.

Hate crimes charges have been filed against the two Maryland teens arrested last month for the brutal attack on a transgender woman at a Baltimore McDonald's.

The indictment returned Monday by a Baltimore County grand jury charges Teonna Brown with assault and a hate crime in the attack on Chrissy Lee Polis last month. She is also charged with assaulting a customer and a McDonald's employee who tried to intervene. A 14-year-old girl is facing the same charges in juvenile court. A videotape of the April 18 beating posted online shows a woman being attacked repeatedly while an employee and customer try to stop them. The woman then appears to have a seizure.

The day after the attack, McDonald's fired the employee who filmed the incident with his cell phone rather than attempting to intervene.

Last night hundreds of protesters crowded the street outside a Baltimore McDonald's in a rally against anti-transgender violence. The event was spawned by last week's brutal attack against Chrissy Lee Polis, a local transwoman who was beaten by two female McDonald's patrons for daring to use the ladies room. Kevin Naff reports at Washington Blade:

“The turnout tonight is wonderful, I’m so happy,” said Renee Carr, Polis’s mother, who attended the rally with family and neighbors, but without her daughter. “I didn’t think that McDonald’s was a dangerous place, all she wanted to do was eat and use the bathroom.” In an interview with the Blade after the rally, Carr said she has always known her daughter was transgender and that she has supported her “100 percent.” “I even carried her pocketbook on the way to the bus stop as a kid,” Carr said, adding that Polis is doing better but was unable to attend. Others at the rally said Polis was afraid to leave her house. “I want to thank everyone personally who came tonight,” said Kathleen Hand, Polis’s grandmother, who also attended the rally, which was held in the McDonald’s parking lot in Rosedale, Md., where the beating took place. “Chrissy is doing great.”

Via Metro Weekly:

A candlelight vigil is scheduled to take place at the McDonald's at 6315 Kenwood Ave. in Rosedale, Baltimore, at 7 p.m. on Monday night where on April 18 a transgender woman was physically attacked, before appearing to have a seizure, in an incident recorded on a portable phone by a McDonald's employee.

The victim says she plans to sue McDonald's. Hate crime charges have not yet been filed against her attackers.

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, speaks out about the attack on her at a Baltimore McDonald's.

McDonald's has fired the staffer who laughed and offered no assistance as he filmed two patrons viciously beating a transgender woman at a Baltimore franchise location. Action is pending against other restaurant staffers.

"My first and foremost concern is with the victim," franchise owner Mitchell McPherson said in a statement, adding that action might be taken against other restaurant workers as well. "I'm as shocked and disturbed by this assault as anyone would be. The behavior displayed in the video is unfathomable and reprehensible." The video of a beating the Rosedale restaurant went viral Friday, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on websites and prompting the fast-food giant to issue a statement condemning the incident. The video shows two women — one of them a 14-year-old girl — repeatedly kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head, as an employee and a patron try to intervene. Others can be heard laughing, and men are seen standing idly by. Toward the end of the video, one of the suspects lands a punishing blow to the victim's head, and she appears to have a seizure. A man's voice tells the women to run because police are coming.

The two attackers, ages 14 and 18, have been arrested. The younger may be charged as a juvenile. Police have not yet revealed whether hate crimes charges will be applied.

Baltimore police have made two arrests in the brutal attack on a transgender woman at a McDonald's, where staffers filmed the assault with their cell phones, then urged the assailants to flee before police arrived. The only person that appears to come to the victim's aid is an elderly female customer, although the restaurant's manager did attempt to pull the attackers away at one point. McDonald's has released the below statement.

"We are shocked by the video from a Baltimore franchised restaurant showing an assault. This incident is unacceptable, disturbing and troubling. McDonald’s strives to be a safe, welcoming environment for everyone who visits. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of customers and employees in our restaurants. We are working with the franchisee and the local authorities to investigate this matter."

The Smoking Gun has more, including a tweet from a witness claiming that the attack began because the victim was in the ladies room.


UPDATE: Equality Maryland reacts via press release.

"A member of our community was recently the victim of senseless violence. Equality Maryland is saddened that in this day and age, bigotry and discrimination against transgender individuals continue, especially in our own backyard. No person ever deserves to be a victim of violence regardless of their gender identity or presentation. We encourage the State's Attorney General to investigate this as a gate crime based on gender identity. We are encouraged that McDonald's is working with local police to investigate this incident, and hope that the company will follow-up with appropriate disciplinary action against any employees involved. We remain committed to advancing gender identity protections for the entire state of Maryland and will continue to work with local organizations and legislators to advance these protections.:

Here's a lovely project in Maryland that just hit my in-box.

Pride Build Montgomery County aims to bring together the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and friends together to help build homes in partnership with families in need. Our hope is to provide an opportunity to better understand diversity by working to provide simple, decent, energy efficient and affordable housing to low-income families in Montgomery County. The Steering Committee for Pride Build includes prominent leaders in the LGBT community including: Bob Bernstein, Elizabeth Birch, Bill Briggs, Colleen Dermody, Randy Griffin, Tim McFeeley, Michael Meller, Jeffery Slavin, Pamela Strother and Bob Witeck.

Hit the link if you'd like to help out.

Following a vicious campaign of lies by anti-gay Christianist groups, Maryland's gender identity anti-discrimination bill has died in the state Senate. Julie Bolcer reports at the Advocate:

Maryland senators voted on Monday to recommit the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination to the judicial proceedings committee, effectively killing any prospects for the bill to pass this session, which ends at midnight. Shortly before 1 p.m. on the last day of session, senators voted 27 to 20 to recommit the bill to the panel, which had advanced the measure by a 7 to 4 vote on Saturday. The move leaves no time to resurrect the bill in 2011.

Among the tactics used to defeat the bill was the Not My Shower website, which claimed that heterosexual men in dresses would invade public locker rooms to molest little girls.

This afternoon the Maryland House approved its transgender rights bill by a vote of 86-52. As you might expect, the debate got ugly at times, with one House member saying, "Do we really want Klinger in charge of our daycares?" Equality Maryland reports via press release:

"Today we thank Delegates Pena-Melynk and Kelly for their tremendous leadership. We are proud of the 86 Delegates who stood up for fairness today by voting to support HB 235. All hardworking people in our state, should have a chance to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families. Nobody should have to live in fear that they can be legally fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their job skills or work performance. There is still work to do, but today, we're one step closer in seeing all transgender Marylanders are treated fairly under the law. Discrimination in jobs and housing happens a lot in Maryland and it's time we put a stop to it. Data shows that 1 in 5 transgender people in Maryland have lost a job due to discrimination and 12% have become homeless. This law is a matter of life-or-death for some Marylanders. We look to the Senate now, where we will work with proven champions Senator Jamie Raskin and Senator Rich Madaleno to see this bill through to a swift and successful passage."

The bill now moves to the Maryland Senate.

This morning a Maryland House committee voted 15-8 to advance its Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act to the full chamber. Equality Maryland reports via press release:

House Bill 235 would add gender identity to the state's anti-discrimination laws in the area of employment, housing, and credit. The subcommittee approved a few non-substantive amendments which the lead sponsor, Equality Maryland, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force all found them to be relatively inconsequential. They committee also modified the definition of gender identity within the bill. This definition will provide protection both for a person's gender identity, as well as the way in which they express their gender in terms of presentation. Equality Maryland worked with the subcommittee and committee to ensure that both areas would be covered under the bill's definition.

The bill is strongly opposed by the usual bigots. Maryland residents, please contact your House Delegate and request their support.

In a ruling that is already being celebrated by NOM, by a 5-2 decision the Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that election officials may no longer contest illegible signatures on referendum petitions.

The Court of Appeals this week released its reasoning behind last fall’s decision on a Montgomery County ambulance fee referendum. The court decision will affect political efforts statewide, and signature-gatherers said it will make their task easier. Everything from local questions to a referendum on gay marriage, if such a measure passes the legislature, could feel the impact. Elections officials in Montgomery had rejected thousands of signatures on petitions last year because of the way voters signed their names. The elections officials blocked a referendum seeking to undo a newly passed fee for ambulance service, and that decision was upheld by a Montgomery circuit court judge. But in September, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court and ordered the referendum placed on the ballot. It didn’t say why, until Tuesday.

Scribble any signature you like. As long as the printed name matches that of a registered voter, the petition will be counted. GOP activists are quoted in the above-linked article as saying they are "thrilled" with the ruling. Why wouldn't they be?

The red-caped loons of the Society for the Defense of Tradition have posted another clip of their street demonstration in Maryland earlier this month. While it certainly may be satisfying to see passersby curse and flip off these nutters, this clip is also instructive on how NOT to behave in the face of such asshattery. Do not ever touch another person or their signage and for fuck's sake, never never never make physical threats. All such actions will be endlessly repeated in their campaign materials AND as we saw with Prop 8, will be forever brought up as "proof" of our side's "violent homofacism." Styrofoam Cross Lady, anybody?

"Early on, a pro-family group made an effort to pull all the Maryland groups into a 'coalition' under a unified leadership. They would dictate strategy. They also insisted that the pro-marriage message be tightly controlled, that it be 'moderate' and not anti-gay or otherwise 'fringe' sounding, be calm and not too emotional, and that they decide who testifies at the marriage hearings, and what the testimony would be.

"That's what happened in Massachusetts in 2005-2007 and it led to a huge failure. On our MassResistance conference calls we advised Maryland activists to ignore that -- and act independently with their own messages, and be as emotional and outspoken as they feel appropriate. Luckily eventually everyone did that and the coalition effectively fell apart. It was the best thing that could have happened." -Brian Camenker of the SPLC-certified hate group MassResistance, saying that marriage failed in Maryland because his side ignored moderate pleas that they not sound so rabidly anti-gay.

Read Camenker's Top Ten Reasons We Won.

"On Friday, one of the most liberal states in America killed a bill to legalize same-sex 'marriage.' That doesn't seem to register with a small group from Hollywood, who can't see past their agenda to the political reality: that counterfeit marriage is a losing issue. Some celebrities are still pushing the President to publicly endorse same-sex 'marriage,' despite some bruising losses on the state front. 'Say, 'I do,' Mr. President,' they wrote in a letter. The actors praised his decision to abandon the federal marriage law in court, and said that move calls for 'clarity' on the marriage question.

"Of course, it's easy to understand the confusion. This White House has done everything it can to promote homosexual 'marriage'--short of announcing its support. And the only reason the President hesitates to do so is the same reason the cosponsors of Maryland's bill walked away. Endorsing same-sex 'marriage' is political suicide. It puts you on the wrong side of an overwhelming number of American voters." - Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, via press release.

The red-caped Catholic loons of the Society for the Defense of Tradition have posted video of last week's demonstration in Maryland.

Jackson also vows to vote out of office anybody that voted in favor of same-sex marriage, a vote that never actually occurred in the Maryland House as the bill was sent back to committee when it became clear that it wouldn't pass.