Maryland advocates and a leading lawmaker projected confidence that a marriage equality bill could pass the state general assembly by early April, while they also predicted success for a gender identity antidiscrimination measure.

"We're in a really great position to be advancing a marriage bill and an anti-discrimination bill," said Cameron Tolle, online organizer for Freedom to Marry, which cohosted a conference call for bloggers Friday afternoon with Equality Maryland to discuss the time line and prospects for the measures. The call also included state senator Jamie Raskin, lead sponsor of the marriage equality bill introduced in the senate this week and a member of the judicial proceedings committee, where the measure could be heard as soon as February 1.