Thursday, April 11, 2013

Delaware Unveils Marriage Equality Bill

Just days after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said that marriage equality can happen in the state, "and it can happen this year," state legislators filed a marriage equality bill.
Most of the state's political leadership, including the governor, lieutenant governor Matt Denn, Speaker of the House Beau Biden, and Senate President Pro Tempore Patricia Blevins, announced the introduction of marriage equality legislation outside the City and County building in Wilmington, Del. on Thursday afternoon. 
The legislative procedure for changing Delaware's laws to encompass marriage equality is relatively simple, reports Slate. Delaware has a state-level marriage statute that prohibits marriage between "people of the same gender," but voters there never amended the state constitution to ban the practice, according to Slate. As such, the legislation aims to revise the statute language and establish marriage equality in the securely democratic state that's home to Vice President Joe Biden. 
Given the state's strong Democratic base — democrats control the Governor's office and both houses of the legislature — equality supporters don't anticipate a drawn-out fight toward equality.

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