Good Day for Equal Rights in Delaware

From the News Journal via Delaware Online:

DOVER -- Gay rights advocates gained two victories Thursday in the state Legislature -- the Senate's defeat of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and the House's passage of a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
More than 1,000 demonstrators wearing white T-shirts with the slogan "One Man, One Woman -- That's Marriage" rallied on the steps of Legislative Hall as, inside, both chambers engaged in lengthy debates colored by accusations of discrimination past and present.

Senate Bill 27, the defeated constitutional amendment, sought to make an existing state law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman more difficult to overturn. But many members of the Senate voiced concern that amending the constitution was unnecessary and even inappropriate.

"I believe that the constitution ... should be not a place where rights are restricted but where there is a positive affirmation of the rights of all of the people of Delaware," Sen. Brian Bushweller, D-Dover, said.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Robert Venables, D-Laurel, who said he wanted to make the already-illegal practice part of the state Constitution to prevent courts from being able to overturn the law.

Venables said other states have seen their legal bans overturned when courts ruled the laws were a violation of civil rights.

Far from gaining the three-fifths majority necessary for an amendment to progress, the bill was voted down 11-9.

Debate turns contentious

Several people testified in favor of the legislation, including Nicole Theis, executive director of the Christian group the Delaware Family Policy Council.

The overturning of gay marriage bans in other states has forced churches to comply with the laws and schools to teach that homosexuality is acceptable, she said.

"Whatever you put into public policy reflects what happens in the classroom," Theis said, holding up copies of children's books that depict gay characters. "I think most people would agree, how you want to live is up to you, but don't teach it in the classroom."

Drewry Fennell, executive director of the ACLU in Delaware, spoke against SB 27 and accused Venables and the bill's co-sponsors, including Sens. Colin Bonini, Thurman Adams, Bruce Ennis and Gary Simpson, of being motivated by their own biases.

"Elevating a prohibition that isn't based on one thing but discriminatory feelings is wrong," Fennell said. "That's not what we use the constitution for. I think it sends a message that many of you would not want to be sending."

It got nasty at a few points in the proceedings - read the rest HERE.

As usual, the sponsors of the bill had to drag out the old dead horses to beat again and again - gay marriage = pedophilia, incest, dangerous to society, and blah, blah, blah. Didn't work.

Let me just say that I had a two way conversation with Sen. Venables via letters to the editor in our local paper a few years ago. He wrote long, uninformed letters, not only uninformed, but some outright lies. He wrote that gays were 'dangerous' and the agenda had to be stopped. I wrote that I found it mystifying that he gave us so much power for second class citizens, and that a straight man appeared to know more about life of gay men in Delaware than gay people did. I pointed out that he spent way too much time judging gay people. Our letter war ended when I wrote that his letters (wandering essays, really) bordered on an obsession with all things gay.

Yesterday we took one more step forward. I wish I could have been there in person.

More later.

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