Nation + World news briefs: Mar 2010

New arguments advanced in gay marriage trial
Lawyers in the first federal trial to examine whether state bans on same-sex marriages are constitutional have submitted new written arguments to Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker. Lawyers for the sponsors of California’s gay marriage ban offered new claims that gay marriage could undermine man-woman unions. The potential harms they cited included giving bisexuals a legal basis for pursuing group marriages and unmarried fathers an incentive to abandon their children.

Maryland AG issues opinion on gay marriage
State agencies in Maryland must now recognize out-of-state gay marriages until the Legislature or courts decide otherwise, according to Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler’s long-awaited legal opinion. Gansler’s opinion concluded that the state’s highest court likely would rule that legal gay marriages in other states are valid in Maryland, but he noted the matter ``is not free from all doubt.’’ Gansler believes “this will be ultimately resolved in the courts.”

N.H. House rejects 2 anti-gay marriage measures
New Hampshire’s House has rejected a bill that would have repealed the state’s 8-week-old gay marriage law. The House voted 210-109 to kill the bill—almost the same margin it defeated a proposed constitutional amendment about an hour earlier that would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Gay marriage opponents vowed voters will have their say in the fall election.