Robert Helm of Ellicott City writes to the Baltimore Sun:

"... The basic principle in Maryland seems to be that "marriage" is whatever the majority in the legislature defines it to be, without regard to those millenia of human experience that preceded us.

... A final observation is that our traditional law of the family has not yet been sufficiently "stress tested" to adapt to a world of same-sex couples. Who, in a same-sex couple divorce, should pay alimony? Who should pay child support? Who should have custody of minor children — whether adopted or generated through biological contributions of one of the marital parties? Couples may have attempted to address these issues "contractually" prior to the most recent statutory developments, but what is the effect of those agreements now that Maryland same-sex couples can be legally married? Doesn't Maryland family law supersede those prior contractual commitments? The bottom line here is that the adoption of the same-sex marriage bill in Maryland was poorly thought out and poorly planned for."