From Delaware Liberal. Posted 4/26/2011 by El Somnambulo: (format & highlights by the author)
Three years. In Cathy Cloutier ‘Have A Great Day’ time, we’re talking 1095 not-so-great days, give or take.There's more HERE.
Senator Dori Connor and Senator Cathy Cloutier cost gays three years of equal rights, free of discrimination. How is it, you may ask, that two senators who have sought and received endorsements from gay rights groups ended up denying gays the basic rights that Connor and Cloutier claimed to support?
Here’s how. On March 24, 2005, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed HS1/HB 36 (Oberle), which would have “prohibit(ed) discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public works contracting, public accommodations, and insurance and grants Superior Court exclusive criminal jurisdiction over violations of equal accommodations, fair housing and employment discrimination…”.
On April 13, 2005, President Pro-Tempore Thurman Adams placed the bill in his own Senate Executive Committee. By placing the bill there, Adams made clear his intent to make sure that this bill would never see the light of day. At least not while he was around. And there it languished until 2006. The bill had enough votes to pass, but it was going nowhere as long as it was in the Senate Executive Committee.
It was in this context that several senators got together to form a coalition to petition the bill out of committee. A majority of all senators, 11 out of 21, was required to get the bill out of committee. The official format to do so was and is a petition with sufficient signatories. By spring of 2006, 11 senators had given their verbal pledge to petition the bill out of committee. Two of those senators were Dori Connor and Cathy Cloutier. All that remained was the seemingly pro-forma matter of signing the petition. The 11 senators had agreed to meet immediately after the Senate broke for party caucus on that fateful day so that all 11 could sign it in the presence of the others, neat and simple. With 11 signatures, it was possible that the bill would become law by the end of the day. It was right there.
Nine senators showed up. Two disappeared, Senator Dori Connor and Senator Cathy Cloutier. Supporters of the bill desperately scoured Legislative Hall to find them. They were nowhere to be found. By breaking their word to their fellow senators and to the gay rights community, Dori Connor and Cathy Cloutier killed an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation for the remainder of Thurman Adams’ reign as President Pro-Tem. When the Senate reconvened that day, a ring of strange ( well, unfamiliar and strange) people circled Cathy Cloutier’s desk. They prevented other senators from speaking to her. To this day, neither she nor Dori Connor have ever publicly explained their abandonment of the gay community.
More later.
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Surprise, surprise. Bill said he will actually get "married' to me once the bill is signed into law in January. Who would've thunk that after 47 years we would make it legal? Maybe we'll have a double wedding with Bob and Jim or even do one of those Moonie Mass Weddings. God knows there are enough of us Old Timers down here to make a scene. Bill can't wait to freak out the rednecks down at the Georgetown courthouse. Me too.
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