If you’ve been driving around Delaware over the last few weeks, you might have noticed something different on the back of some cars: a rainbow-colored license plate. The Delaware Pride Council Plate, a new speciality selection available to motorists, features the inscription “LOVE IS LOVE” at the top-center between two heart-shaped Progress Pride flags.
“I saw my first one on the road the other day and I was very excited as I’m working to get the word out about this,” said State Rep. Eric Morrison, who noted that funds raised by the sale of these license plates will benefit the United Way of Delaware Pride Council. “It’s a way for us and our allies to show pride and to let people know that we’re here.”
Morrison is impressed with the Pride Council’s attention to LGBTQ+ youth, explaining that United Way works with GSAs across the state to develop programming and offer training and hosts an annual GSA summit. The organization also works with businesses and organizations across the state to establish and support employee resource groups and similar programs.
Morrison, who — alongside senators Sarah McBride and Marie Pinkney — became the one of the first openly LGBTQ+ candidates to be elected to the Delaware General Assembly in 2020, worked with the Department of Education and the governor’s office to secure a “10-fold” increase in funding for United Way of Delaware. The new vanity plates will offer even more support — as the Pride Council will receive $15 per sale.
LGBTQ+ people have made a strong impact on Delaware’s history — with notable figures present and visible as early as the late 1800s and Rehoboth Beach becoming a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ tourists for decades of summer fun.
Delaware now has five openly LGBTQ+ state legislators — and Morrison, who is currently seeking re-election, believes Delaware’s queer community and allied leaders have pushed the state into the forefront of modern progress in recent years.
“It’s important to have allies down there and we’ve had some terrific allies for years,” he said about cis-het people who pay close attention to the needs and voices of the queer community. “But they can’t always identify some of the issues with the LGBTQ+ community — and of course, they have other priorities too.”
Morrison said he’s been surprised by how much he’s needed to educate other lawmakers about issues that impact the queer community — including the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense, which he was recently successful in banning throughout the state. He said some of his cis-het colleagues hadn’t ever heard of the courtroom strategy — which deflects blame away from an attacker by weaponizing the victim’s LGBTQ+ identity.
“I almost had to convince them that this is a real thing because they were so outraged to know that such a defense even exists and has been used in Delaware,” he said. “Some of them almost had a hard time believing this is a real thing because it’s so horrendous.”
Morrison also worked to develop a policy that requires single-stall public bathrooms in Delaware to be gender-neutral spaces with inclusive signage. He’s working with Senator Marie Pinkney to update the state’s hate crime statute, has proposed legislation that would add asexual and pansexual to the legal definition of sexual orientation, and has worked with the Department of Corrections to hire a consultant who can advise on best practices regarding how to best support transgender and nonbinary inmates.
Both the increased visibility and bolstered funding to resources thanks to the specialty Pride license plates are an important step in creating and maintaining the progress Morrison sees. But there’s always more work to be done. Morrison hopes to introduce a bill that will establish more concrete nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people next.
“What I’m hearing from [LGBTQ+ people] is that they want to feel safer,” he said, underlining that the rise in queerphobic rhetoric has been alarming and led to an uptick in national hate crimes. “The community wants to feel safe and feel protected — feel like we’re not going to lose the gains that we have made.”
Morrison predicts that this upcoming election will include wins for LGBTQ+ lawmakers and allies, with Delaware possibly electing the first openly trans member of the U.S. Congress. He hopes that outcome will provide at least a little relief.