In Maryland, Gay Marriage Seeks a ‘Yes’ at the Polls
When Marylanders go to the polls in November, the state could become the first to affirm same-sex marriage in a popular vote.
In March, lawmakers in Maryland approved a measure to allow such unions, but it came with a built-in escape hatch: it would not take effect until 2013.
The waiting period was intended as a compromise with opponents of the measure and as an insurance policy for supporters. Lawmakers feared validating marriages for a period, only to have them overturned by a popular vote later, as happened with Proposition 8 in California.
Opponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland seized the opportunity to contest the law and gathered more than 100,000 signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot, setting the stage for a renewed debate on the issue.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us/in-maryland-gay-marriage-seeks-a-yes-at-the-polls.html
"When we vote on minority rights of many, if not all stripes in this
country, we tend to vote no. It's part of the whole concept of rights.
They are not supposed to be up for a vote." --Rachel Maddow (video, transcript)