BALTIMORE (AP) – Legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland would provide a modest benefit to the state’s bottom line, according to a study that advocates say bolsters their argument that gays and lesbians should have the right to tie the knot.

The study released Wednesday by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation at the UCLA School of Law concluded that Maryland’s budget would see a positive impact of $3.2 million annually if the state allowed same-sex couples to marry.

The report found that the loss of revenue from transfer taxes and increased spending on state employee benefit programs would be outweighed by a reduction in spending on public benefit programs and sales tax revenue from weddings.

“All those dollars spent on hotels and parties and other aspects of weddings would bring just about $100 million a year to the state’s businesses, and that leads to sales tax revenue,” said M.V. Lee Badgett, a co-author of the study.

The Williams Institute has conducted similar surveys in eight other states; all have found an economic benefit from legalizing same-sex marriage. The reports echo a 2004 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office that found a modest boon to the federal budget – less than $1 billion a year – if same-sex marriage were legalized nationwide.

Opponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland argue that legalizing same-sex unions would undermine traditional families and lead to homosexuality being taught in schools. The impact on the budget has rarely entered the debate.

Delegate Christopher Shank, the House minority whip, said repealing a package of tax increases approved during a recent special session would have a far greater benefit to Maryland’s economy than legalizing same-sex marriage. And he said $3.2 million would not be enough money to change anybody’s mind about the issue.

“To try to use an economic argument to somehow sweeten the pot, I think, would fall on deaf ears,” said Shank, a Washington County Republican. The economic benefits, he added, “don’t outweigh to me the negative societal damage of legalizing homosexual marriage.”

But Dan Furmansky, executive director of the pro-same-sex marriage group Equality Maryland, said the study was an important tool.

“It’s part of the vast rebuttals that we’re forced to make due to falsehoods by our opponents, one of which is that somehow this is bad economically for Maryland,” Furmansky said.

When the General Assembly convenes in January, Equality Maryland and other groups intend to push a bill that would legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples while specifying that no clergy would be forced to perform marriages that they oppose. On the other side, Delegate Don Dwyer, R-Anne Arundel, plans to introduce a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, as he has in previous legislative sessions.

A 1973 state law banning same-sex marriage survived a court challenge this year, sending the issue back to the legislature.

Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage, but nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, supports civil unions. But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, also a Democrat, has said that he won’t support same-sex marriage or civil unions and that supporters don’t have the votes in the legislature.

Although the Williams Institute study did not specifically address the economic impact of civil unions, Badgett said the benefit would be smaller because couples from other states wouldn’t travel to Maryland to get married.

Salem (AP) – Kelly Burke remembers well the day in 2004 when she and her partner gathered with hundreds of other same-sex couples in an auditorium in Portland to exchange wedding vows – unions made possible by Multnomah County’s move to legalize same-sex marriage.

Burke recalled: “No one knew if it was going to be shut down in an hour or how long it was going to last.”

It lasted about six weeks – until a judge ruled that there was no right to same-sex marriage under state law, thus invalidating 3,000 marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples.

On Jan. 1, Burke and her partner of nearly 20 years, Dolores Doyle, will be able to gain official recognition of their relationship under a new state law that will allow them to register as domestic partners.

Oregon will join eight states, including California, that have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples. Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex couples to marry.

OMAHA (AP) – Two Omaha moms are launching a straight-to-DVD cartoon that reflects their own life together as parents of a young boy.

“Buddy G – My Two Moms and Me” is about a 5-year-old with two moms who loves science and uses a computer strapped to his arm to solve problems.

Executive producer Margaux Towne-Colley said Monday that most reaction to the $10 DVD has been positive so far, although she does expect some negatives: “There’s people out there who would like to pretend families like ours don’t exist, but we do.”

The first episode talks about the value of being truthful, along with a few facts about how metal detectors work. Future episodes were to include other families, including ones with two dads.

Towne-Colley said the company she and her spouse formed, Us 2 LLC, has received a few hundred orders for the first-episode DVD. She expects to have 5,000 copies in hand by mid-December.

She would love to see their cartoon air on TV, but doesn’t expect that to happen soon: “I don’t know if Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel would be ready for this.”

That’s a safe bet: In 2005, after criticism from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, PBS said it wouldn’t distribute an episode of the children’s series “Postcards from Buster,” in which the animated bunny visits the children of two lesbian couples in Vermont.

ELIZABETH (AP) – The animosity between New Jersey’s gay former governor and his estranged wife is overshadowing their love for their only child, a judge told the couple Thursday in ruling on a birthday party dispute.

Union County Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy said Jacqueline McGreevey, who turns 6 next week, could have her birthday party on Saturday at her father’s house, then scolded her infamous parents for bringing their dispute to court.

“The hatred these two seem to have for each other seems to override the love for the child in my mind because it’s so out of control,” Cassidy told the McGreeveys, who were standing before her, buffered by their lawyers.

McGreevey and his partner booked ponies and hired face-painting clowns for a party Saturday for about 20 children. Dina Matos McGreevey objected because the party was scheduled for a time when she has custody.

Although an impartial parenting coordinator appointed by the court recommended a compromise – that the party go on as scheduled and that the two parents share custody this weekend – the bickering couple could not agree before the judge intervened.

The judge agreed with the parenting coach and allowed shared custody over the weekend, thereby letting the Jacqueline attend her party.

After grilling McGreevey’s lawyer about why he brought the matter to court before allowing the parenting coordinator to broker a solution, she slapped McGreevey with a bill for his wife’s legal costs for the day – about $400 an hour.

Afterward, McGreevey expressed gratitude for the judge’s concern for their child, said he wished his wife well and seemed to brush off the judge’s admonishments as customary during a divorce.

MACUNGIE (AP) – The Lower Macungie Township Library board has declined to pull a storybook with a homosexual theme off the shelf despite complaints from one couple and 40 signatures from other residents.

Jeff and Eileen Issa demand that the library remove the book King & King. The library board refused for a second time on Thursday.

Eileen Issa says she was reading the story to her 21/2-year-old son when she came to the ending where the prince gets married – to a man. She says when she saw the illustration of the newlywed men kissing she “was sick.”

Library Director Kathee Rhode says the library seeks to offer a variety of views and ways of life. She says library officials want parents to decide on subject matter for their own children, but not one parent to decide for all children.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Two transgender members of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) quit Tuesday, saying the group’s support of an employment nondiscrimination bill that excluded transgender workers put them “in an untenable position.”

Jamison Green and Donna Rose’s resignations from the business council of the Human Rights Campaign are effective immediately, according to a joint letter. The Human Rights Campaign works for equal rights for gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

“Considering recent broken promises, the lack of credibility that HRC has with the transgender community at large, and HRC’s apparent lack of commitment to healing the breach it has caused, we find it impossible to maintain an effective working relationship with the organization,” they said.

The House, with support from the Human Rights Campaign, earlier this month passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The measure would make it illegal for employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation.

But it does not protect transgender workers. That term covers transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose outward appearance does not match their gender at birth.

Supporters of the bill say it would not have passed the House if it had included transgender protection. However, many transgender activists and their supporters were furious at their exclusion from the legislation and lobbied to scrap it.

The bill is now in the Senate.

“HRC has always and will continue to be supportive of a fully inclusive ENDA that protects our entire community,” said Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brad Luna. “While HRC was disappointed the bill did not include protections for transgender Americans, we believe it paves the way for additional progress to outlaw workplace discrimination based on gender identity.”

Luna said: “We wish Donna and Jamison well in their future

endeavors.”