Almost two years to the day after Delaware adopted a civil-union law, the First State again made LGBT history. On May 7, just moments after the Delaware Senate passed a marriage-equality bill in a 12-9 vote, Gov. Jack Markell signed the legislation into law, making Delaware the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage. The action came about a week after Rhode Island did the same. “Today, we wrote a new chapter in our history and proved, once again, justice and equality continue to move forward in Delaware,” Markell said in a statement. “In my State of the State earlier this year, I spoke about a Delaware that protects the rights of all of its citizens, no matter whom they love. By signing House Bill 75 into law, we are another step closer towards achieving that goal.” The law, which will take effect July 1, was first approved in the House in a 23-18 vote on April 22. Lisa Goodman, president of Equality Delaware, said it was hard to put into words how far the state has come. “We’ve been walking down the road to equality for a really long time and to get to the point yesterday to have the roll-call vote go in our favor … it is hard to describe what that felt like,” Goodman said. She added that 400 legislators and advocates were in attendance as Markell signed the bill, a moment she called “amazing.” American Civil Liberties Union Delaware executive director Kathleen McRae said Tuesday was a historic day “for Delawareans who have shown their support and commitment to fairness and equality. We are proud to have worked with so many dedicated partners to reach this moment.” Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal, applauded both legislators and groups like Equality Delaware for helping to win marriage equality in another state. “Just last week, Rhode Island became the 10th state to grant marriage to same-sex couples and the momentum continues,” she said. “It feels that we’ve been in a period of long celebration for months now, but we must remember that these victories were long in the making.” Goodman said she hopes the state’s vote will create a domino effect. “I hope that people who are already working will be heartened by every state that they see moving towards marriage,” she said. “We doubled our efforts and I hope that legislators will look at what happened and say, ‘We want to be the kind of state where everyone is treated equally.’” Equality Delaware will continue to advocate for other LGBT issues, she added. “Our state still lacks protections for gender identity and expression in both our anti-discrimination and hate-crimes laws, and that is a hugely important focus for Equality Delaware.” Efforts are underway to make Minnesota and Illinois the next states to adopt marriage-equality laws.
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