Delaware General Assembly Votes on Gay Rights, Marriage Equality

March 27, 2009

There are several parts to this one, so I’ll go directly to Delaware’s WBOC-TV for an explanation:

Two major pieces of legislation dealing with gay rights came up for a vote in the Delaware General Assembly Thursday.

The first measure, Senate Bill 27, would have reinforced Delaware’s ban on gay marriage. That proposed constitutional amendment failed in the Senate Thursday.

The House though did pass a measure to make it illegal to discriminate against gay people when it comes to everything from employment to buying homes. The bill now goes over to the Senate for consideration. Gov. Jack Markell said Thursday he supports the bill.

Senate bill 27 failed despite the efforts of hundreds of protesters who gathered at Legislative Hall to support the measure. Supporters argued they wanted to make sure marriage remained between a man and a woman.

“We really want to see a growing swell of support for what marriage really is, between one man and one woman, no matter who wants to change it,” said Kim Birowski.

Opponents though argued that Delaware already bans gay marriage and did not need to pass a constitutional amendment.

Steve Elkins says, “We’re here at the state capital of the first state, to take advantage of equal rights for citizens.”

No word on whether Senate Bill 27 will be re-introduced.

Okay, so to reiterate:

Senate bill (SB27) that would have started the process of passing an anti-marriage equality amendment to the Delaware Constitution failed. Gay marriage remains illegal, but only by law, not by Constitution.
House bill (HB5) that gives roughly the same anti-discrimination protections as the federal proposed ENDA passed. The bill needs to pass in the Senate, then it goes to the Governor, who says he’ll sign it.

Kudos to the Delaware legislature for voting in favor of equality and against discrimination.

Interesting comments on the WBOC-TV article. Some very basic arguments being made, the kind that have been refuted and that we’re all tired of dealing with. There are more than these three comments, some of them even positive, but these show up on the main article page.