Yes, representatives from the National Organization for Marriage were present, and other anti-same-sex marriage viewpoints were aired during yesterday’s public hearing on the Maryland Senate’s same-sex marriage legislation. But it was young people whose voices rang the loudest.

Metro Weekly has a report from the scene in Annapolis yesterday, and its striking to see how the teenagers at the hearing appeared to be the ones making the most sense.

Here’s 10-year-old Bena Williams:

”It’s not like they’re from outer space,” she said, to Republican Sen. Allan Kittleman who said earlier that passage of the bill was ”the right thing to do.”

And 14-year-old Maya Deane-Polyak:

“The clerk explained to my mom that we were not able to use the card because Lisa’s name was not on the card and because she was not married to my mom,” she said during her testimony in front of the Maryland State Senate. ”As I stood there watching it all happen, so many different emotions came over me – embarrassment, sadness, hurt – but mostly I just felt helpless and angry. Helpless that I could not help my mom … that I could not make it better.”

Dean-Polyak also added: “My moms do everything for me…They create such a normal, extraordinary life for me.”

It’s a supremely telling thing, that, in a room with around 150 people foaming at the mouth to get their statements on the record, the most moving arguments about the bill in question came from two children.