My Observations on SB30 and Its Passage
On Thursday, April 14th, I had the honor of attending the hearings in the House on SB30 joined by my fellow Board members from Delaware Stonewall.
After a recess from presentations to former House members, the hearings got underway. As the amendments were brought up, read and discussed, I grew more and more anxious as to the outcome. First amendment – defeated. Second amendment – defeated. And so it went as one by one Representative George was able to pick apart the amendments and defeat them. Some of the amendments were just plain hateful and others were created simply to try and stall the bill. Nice try, didn’t work. Now came the big moment – the role call vote. I waited, as did other members, with bated breath to see if this bill was indeed going to pass and Civil Unions become law in Delaware. The big moment finally arrived and the bill passed 26 to 15. There was a moment of stunned silence and then the entire upper and lower floors broke into cheers. What a great moment to be there and witness this historic event.
Of course, the opposition wasn’t as thrilled and I don’t remember ever seeing people leave a place so quickly like that particular day. I had the pleasure of several of these folks standing directly behind myself and the Delaware Stonewall Kent County Coordinator and listen to some of the remarks. The remarks being made, were to put it mildly, most unkind and typical of those who opposed giving us this right.
What amazed me in particular was one Representative’s vote. I had fully expected this Representative’s vote to be for the amendments and against the bill. I was surprised when the first Amendment was presented and the Representative voted “No.” I had to do a double take as it continued along in this vein. When the final vote came and the Representative voted “Yes,” I was really amazed. So what changed his mind? I give credit to the phone bank that Equality Delaware put into operation. In fact, more then one Representative mentioned on the floor that constituent phone calls helped them decide which way to cast their vote. This didn’t work in all cases, but it did in enough to persuade these Representatives that voting yes on SB30 was the correct and right thing to do. Some Senators and Representatives weren’t swayed though and used that ancient “My district is so conservative and I have to think of them…” Now let’s be honest here, most of the Senators and Representatives who said that have just as many of us in their districts, so that doesn’t hold water anymore. Rather, IMHO, they were just more worried about being re-elected versus doing what would have been the correct thing and that was to vote for the bill.
