Delegate Tweets Equality More Than Just Gay Marriage

Del. Jill P. Carter took to Twitter to vent her frustration with what she sees as the Maryland General Assembly's failure to deal with other issues regarding equality besides same-sex marriage.

On Tuesday night Carter, who represents neighborhoods such as Roland Park and Mount Washington, sent messages from her account (@jillpcarter) accusing state lawmakers of forgetting about impoverished residents while forging ahead with same-sex marriage legislation.

"I care about the children of same sex couples. But, I care about poor victims of lead poisoning the MGA has never addressed w/urgency or humanity," Carter wrote.

Read all of Carter's Tweets about the subject in the photos accompanying this article.

Carter was criticized last year when she held up a vote on a same-sex marriage bill in the House Judiciary Committee by skipping a vote on the bill. That left the committee short of two votes in support, according to a story from WBAL-TV.

At that time Carter said she skipped the vote to try and leverage support for legislation she had submitted to the committee. That bill never received a full vote in the House of Delegates, and some activists blamed Carter for stalling the bill's momentum.

This year, a same-sex marriage bill is expected to have a better chance of passing because it was introduced by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

On Tuesday the House Judiciary and Health and Government Operations committees voted in favor of moving the Civil Marriage Protection Act forward.

However, supporters are still trying to round up enough votes to ensure the bill will be passed by the House of Delegates.