One year after Safe Harbor in Maryland

The two Democrats running to succeed U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told the Washington Blade that they will defend LGBTQ rights in the U.S. Senate.

Congressman David Trone is a member of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and co-sponsored the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights law.

Trone voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act and co-sponsored a U.S. House of Representatives resolution in support of transgender rights. Trone helped secure $530,000 in grants from the Department of Homeland Security to develop violence prevention programs for LGBTQ youth in Montgomery County. He has also participated in pride marches and other LGBTQ-specific events in his district that stretches from northern Montgomery County to Garrett County in western Maryland.

Trone, in a telephone interview with the Blade on May 1, noted that Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified marriage equality into federal law.

“It’s about being able to make personal connections with people across the aisle,” Trone said.

“What worked for me was building a personal relationship and telling stories about my life,” he added.

Trone, during the interview, revealed that his niece was trans and attended Furman University in South Carolina. He said he donated $10 million to the school he attended as an undergraduate to “develop their mental health capabilities, which I thought was a way for her to receive the best possible mental health care during her transition. .”

Trone said his company, Total Wine & More, began offering benefits to its employees' same-sex partners nearly 30 years ago. He told the Blade that he implemented the policy after an employee said her partner was unable to obtain health insurance.

“I didn’t really think about it, because I didn’t realize his partner was another woman,” Trone recalls. “She explained to me that she was another woman and she couldn't get married, and I said, well, we'll figure it out, so I went to human resources and found out that you could change your policy.”

In 2012, Maryland voters approved the same-sex marriage law.

Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks was the county's state's attorney when voters upheld the marriage equality law.

She supported the law and attended a pro-Question 6 fundraiser at Del's home. Anne Kaiser (D-Montgomery County) before the referendum. The Montgomery County Democrat's wife worked with Alsobrooks when she was a state's attorney, and she toasted them at their 2013 wedding.

Alsobrooks, during an April 29 interview at the Blade office, noted that Prince George's County offers PrEP to LGBTQ people and other communities “who need the opportunity to protect themselves.”

Like Trone, she supports the Equality Act, noting that it “provides the opportunity to be free from discrimination in a number of forums.” Alsobrooks also spoke of the need to “protect the courts.”

“The only thing former President Trump did was fill the courts with judges who made decisions that took away the rights of many people, including the LGBTQ community,” she told the Blade.

Alsobrooks also said she would like to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “make sure that we don't appoint these conservative, activist judges who want to make decisions and choices that are not theirs… and are determined, I think, to dismiss.” freedom of so many people.

Prince George's County Councilwoman Krystal Oriadha, a bisexual woman who supports Trone, criticized the decision last June not to hold a Pride flag-raising ceremony at the Upper Marlboro County Administration Building.

Pastor John K. Jenkins, Sr., of First Baptist Church of Glenarden, the Upper Marlboro church that Alsobrooks attends, in 2012 urged his congregants to vote against Maryland's marriage equality law. Shirley Caesar, a well-known gospel singer, during a 2017 church appearance defended Kim Burrell, another gospel singer who discussed the “perverted homosexual lifestyle” in an online sermon that been removed from YouTube and social media.

Alsobrooks' campaign, in an earlier statement to the Blade, said it “disagrees with these sentiments.”

Main winner likely to face Hogan

Early voting in Maryland began on May 2.

Campaign finance reports indicate Trone loaned his campaign more than $54 million. Alsobrooks has raised more than $7 million.

A poll conducted by Goucher College with the Baltimore Banner between March 19 and 24 found that 42 percent of likely Democratic voters would vote for Trone, compared to 33 percent who said they would vote for Alsobrooks. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they were undecided.

An Emerson College Polling/The Hill/DC News Now poll released Thursday indicates Alsbrooks is now ahead of Trone by a margin of 42 to 41 percent with a margin of error of 2.9 percent. The survey was conducted between Monday and Wednesday.

The winner of the May 14 primary will most likely face former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who entered the race in February.

Alsobrooks would become the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate if she wins in November. She told the Blade that Maryland “will be one of the states” that determines whether Democrats retain control of the chamber.

“This issue of choice was also brought up clearly because of Hogan's well-known position as a non-pro-choice person,” she said, referring to abortion which has become one of the main campaign topics after the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade. “It really energized a lot of people who are now stepping up and committing to making sure that we keep Maryland blue and, by extension, elect people who will protect women's right to choose, protect reproductive freedom. “

Trone told the Blade that he was the candidate who could defeat Hogan in November.

“I have a track record of moving forward and passing bills in the House for three sessions,” Trone said. “I could beat Larry Hogan.”

Trone and Alsobrooks have intensified their attacks on each other in recent weeks.

Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin and other elected officials who supported Alsobrooks last weekend publicly criticized Trone after she told NBC Washington last week that the people who supported her were “low-level.”

Trone apologized in March after using a racial slur during a House Budget Committee hearing.

Alsobrooks' campaign has not publicly responded to the comment. Alsobrooks herself pointed out to the Blade that Trone, during a debate, said she gave money to U.S. Representatives Lucy McBath (D-Georgia) and Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois), describing them as “candidates of great diversity”. (Trone later said he meant “diverse candidates.”)

“We are not diversity candidates,” Alsobrooks said. “They are qualified deputies.”

Alsobrooks also noted that Trone had given money to anti-LGBTQ Republicans.

Campaign finance records indicate Trone and/or his wife have previously supported anti-LGBTQ Republicans. These include a $38,000 donation to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's election campaign in 2014, two $4,000 contributions to former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in 2008 and 2012, and $2,500 to U.S. Sen. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.).

Total Wine & More between 2007 and 2022 contributed $272,971 to Republican officials, candidates and state parties. Trone stepped down as CEO of the company in 2015.

Trone, in response to Alsobrooks' criticism, said his company has more than 1,000 employees in Texas. Trone also defended his company and how he has “always put my people first.”

“If you put your employees first, you'll take care of your employees with full-time salaries, salaries with benefits, insurance, health care, all those things,” he said. “The Republicans are attacking us in all these states, and then they have the audacity to ask for money in these states, and that's where the company finds itself between a rock and a hard place.”

“That’s why we want to get this money out of politics,” Trone added. “Get these people out of there by asking for money.”

Trone said he gave more than $20 million to Democrats.

“The fact that the company is working to protect the jobs of people in Tennessee and South Carolina (is) working on issues that are not related to abortion, issues that are not related to the issues at all LGBTQ+ related to business; I keep them open,” he told the Blade. “They would like to confuse the world to their advantage.”

Trone noted that he was not “born rich” and attended public school, while Alsobrooks “went to private school.” Trone also described Alsobrooks to the Blade as a “career politician.”

Governor Wes Moore; Lt. Governor Aruna Miller; U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen; former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Representatives John Sarbanes, Glenn Ivey, Steny Hoyer, Kweisi Mfume and Jamie Raskin; State Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City); former State's Attorney Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City); Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott; and Howard County Registrar of Wills Byron Macfarlane are among the elected officials who supported Alsobrooks.

“She was for marriage equality before it was cool to be for marriage equality,” Kaiser told the Blade late last year.

Attorney General Anthony Brown, Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy, and Gay State Dels. Ashanti Martinez (Montgomery County Democrat) and Kris Fair (Frederick County Democrat) are among those who supported Trone.

“Congressman David Trone has been a steadfast supporter of LGBTQ+ rights since his first year in office,” Fair told the Blade in a statement Tuesday. “He has been a vocal and visible leader, showing up in queer spaces and being an active listener and facilitator. »

Gay state Rep. Joe Vogel (Montgomery County Democrat), running for Trone's congressional seat, also endorsed him.