When a Baltimore Circuit Court judge decided Maryland’s ban against same-sex marriage was unconstitutional Jan. 20, College Park resident Dave Kolesar was overjoyed.

As one of the nine plaintiff couples in the Deane vs. Conaway lawsuit filed in 2004, Kolesar and his partner, Patrick Wojahn, saw two years of legal entanglements finally pay off with the judge’s support of same-sex marriage.

Judge Brooke M. Murdock ruled a 1973 state law which prohibited same-sex marriage was discriminatory and caused by bias, bringing an end to the first stage of the lawsuit, which was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality Maryland and nine gay couples chosen to be the “face of the gay community,” Kolesar said.

Although Murdock’s decision has given hope to the gay community, it still has to go through a tenuous appeals process, said Luke Jensen, director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity.

“It will be a very long process,” Jensen said. “This judge heard a case and registered her decision, and now we go through an appeals decision and other judges will hear the case. It will probably go to Maryland’s highest court, which is the Court of Appeals, and ultimately I’m sure they will decide.”

Kolesar agrees with Jensen, and said it is important to remember nothing is definite yet.

“When the ruling initially came down, I got the phone call and I was really excited, but then it was replaced quickly with a kind of cautious optimism because it’s not the final ruling,” Kolesar said. “It could still go any number of directions. You never know what a higher court is going to do. “

While Murdock’s decision signals a step in the positive direction for gay rights, a bill currently in the Maryland General Assembly could amend the state’s constitution to ban gay marriage once and for all, Jensen said.

House Bill 48, or the Marriage Protection Act, was scheduled for a committee hearing Jan. 31, but government and politics professor James Gimpel said he doubts the bill will succeed because of Democratic control of the legislature.

The sentiment among Republicans was it would be difficult for Democrats to defend same-sex marriage, because the majority of people in the state are against it, Gimpel said. “But, Democrats, of course, did not want to have any kind of same-sex prohibition in the Maryland constitution, and the Democrats pretty much run everything over in Annapolis.”

For his part, Kolesar described the bill as a “needless intrusion into other people’s lives.”

“I just really don’t see how specifically amending the constitution to prevent Patrick and I from getting married, how it threatens anybody else’s marriage. We should all live our lives in a live-and-let-live manner. This just seems to me superfluous, a little vindictive,” he said.

By legalizing same-sex marriage, Maryland would acquire many public policy benefits similar to those of Massachusetts, which ruled its state ban on gay marriage unconstitutional in 2004, Jensen said.

“We can look to Massachusetts for many things,” he said, citing studies that showed tax revenues went up as a result of the change and noting that the state has the most highly educated population and lowest divorce rate in the country. “Marriage is probably healthier in Massachusetts than it is in any place else in the country.”

Although Murdock’s decision may take months to be enacted, Gus Collins, president of the Pride Alliance – the campus organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students – said gay students wait eagerly to hear the outcome because it will dramatically impact their futures.

“It does more than give them hope,” he said. “I think it shows that there are still judges and politicians in this country who are willing to take a stand for American rights and civil rights, and to say discrimination will not stand.”

The future of same-sex marriages is not only related to court rulings, but also to public knowledge about the gay community, Kolesar said.

“I could definitely see a time and a place where 20, 30 years from now, you look back at this and say, ‘Why didn’t they do this sooner?'” Kolesar said. “As more gay people are out and about, living normal lives and not being a disruptive force in society, more people will say, ‘What’s the big deal?'”

Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at hadadidbk@gmail.com.