Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2007-10-26 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Vanessa Bowling dreams of getting married someday but knows she would have to leave her family, friends and native Maryland behind.

“It’s hurtful to live in a state where I can’t express my love the way I want to,” said Bowling, a sophomore at Morgan State University and president of Rainbow Soul, the historically black school’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender group.

“I was crushed when I heard about the court rejecting gay marriage. I want a future where I can express love for my future wife.”

But a new organization that started Thursday, the Maryland Black Family Alliance, has given her hope.

Elbridge James, a retired human resources administrator at University of Maryland, College Park helped found the alliance to show the support of straight African-Americans for gay marriage as a civil right.

Still recovering from the Court of Appeal’s decision last month to uphold the state’s ban on gay marriage, the organization’s members want to show that advocates of gay rights will continue to press on.

“We are here to say, ‘No, the black community is not homophobic,’” said James, a former lobbyist for the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“Civil rights belong to everyone. We are saying no to those who want to bigot us, divide us.”

Sen. Gwendolyn Britt, D-Prince George’s County, said she plans to sponsor a bill at the start of the regular session of the General Assembly in January that would make gay marriage legal but stipulate that churches can decide individually whether they would perform the ceremonies.

“Just as I stood up against racial discrimination in the 1960s,” Britt said, “I will speak up against the injustice against same-sex couples in Maryland.”

Bowling, who is half black and half white, said her black relatives’ religious views prevent them from accepting her as a lesbian.

In the meantime, she said she looks forward to the day when she “can walk across campus holding her girlfriend’s hand without being judged.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com