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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, January 30, 2004
DOVER, Del. — A committee of the Delaware State Senate that includes two
lawmakers from beach resort areas popular with gays is expected to decide in
early March whether a state gay civil rights bill is enacted into law or dies
in committee, as it has in the past two legislative sessions.
The legislation, known as House Bill 99, would prohibit discrimination based
on sexual orientation in employment, public accommodations, housing, insurance
and contracting for state-funded public works projects. If enacted, Delaware
would become the 15th state, along with the District of Columbia, to pass a
gay civil rights measure. Four states include gender identity in their laws.
Delaware’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the
bill last year, and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) has said she would sign the legislation.
Supporters say the bill’s main stumbling block has been the Democrat-controlled
State Senate, whose committees are dominated by socially conservative “Dixiecrats” from
southern, rural sections of the state. Those areas include the Delaware beach
communities popular with gays, such as the towns of Rehoboth Beach and Lewes.
In 2002, the bill died in the Senate Small Business Committee, when Sen. Robert
Venables, a Democrat from Laurel, Del., located about 40 miles west of Rehoboth
Beach, refused to take any action on the measure.
At the start of the legislative session two weeks ago, Sen. Thurman Adams,
a conservative Democrat and the Senate’s president pro tem, assigned
the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Adams is from Bridgeville, a town
known for its antique shops located about 25 miles west of Lewes, where gay
and straight visitors from the D.C. area pass through on their way to the beach.
Sen. James Vaughn, another conservative Democrat who opposes HB 99, chairs
the Judiciary Committee, where the bill is now pending. Vaughn has reportedly
said he would consider releasing the bill from his committee to allow a vote
on the Senate floor, although he plans to vote against it.
“We are reasonably hopeful that it will come up for a floor vote, and
the Senate will approve it,” said Drew Fennell, an official with the
Delaware American Civil Liberties Union.
Fennell, a lesbian activist who is coordinating lobbying efforts on behalf
of the bill, said Adams’ decision to assign the bill to Vaughn’s
committee, rather than Venables’, has been interpreted by political observers
as a signal that he supports allowing the measure to go to the Senate floor
for an up or down vote.
However, signals about the bill’s fate in Vaughn’s Judiciary Committee
have been mixed, according to news reports from the state capital in Dover.
An Associated Press story on Jan. 14 quoted Vaughn as saying he had yet to
make up his mind on whether to release the bill.
“I don’t know,” the AP quoted Vaughn as saying, when asked
how he would handle the bill. “That’s a bit premature for me to
answer.”
The Delaware News Journal reported that same day that Senate Majority Leader
Harris B. McDowell II, a Democrat from Wilmington and a member of the Judiciary
Committee, believes the committee will vote to send the legislation to the
full Senate.
“It’s not going to die in committee,” the News Journal quoted
McDowell as saying. “We’re going to get it out of there and pass
the bill.”
Steve Elkins, executive director of Camp Rehoboth, a gay advocacy group in
Rehoboth Beach, said this week that recent developments appear to back McDowell’s
view that a majority of the six-member committee favors releasing the bill
to the Senate floor. But Elkins said doubts remain over whether Vaughn will
allow the committee to vote on the bill.
Elkins noted that Venables has said he plans to introduce one or more amendments
to the bill if it reaches the floor that, if passed, would require that the
House reconsider the measure. “That would likely kill it for this year,” Elkins
said.
Venables and other senators who oppose the bill are expected to propose amendments
similar to those introduced and defeated last year in the Delaware House of
Representatives. One called for removing the phrase “real or perceived” sexual
orientation from the legislation, an action that supporters said would “gut” the
legislation. Another amendment called for prohibiting public schools from including
instruction on sexual orientation in sex education programs.
Gay activists involved in lobbying for H.B. 99 point to what they see as an
irony that several state senators hostile toward the bill — and who are
playing a pivotal role in whether it dies in committee — represent areas
with thousands of gay residents and summer visitors.
Activists note that the senators’ districts are located within Sussex
County, a historically rural, conservative section of Delaware whose coastal
areas have experienced exponential growth over the past 20 years as Rehoboth
and other beach communities have become popular.
One of the Judiciary Committee members, Sen. F. Gary Simpson, a Republican,
represents the 18th Senatorial District, which includes the outskirts of Rehoboth
Beach and the towns of Lewes and Milton. All three of these communities have
large concentrations of gay residents and summer visitors, who flock to nearby
beaches and gay-owned businesses. Yet Simpson has said he opposes H.B. 99 and
will vote against it on the Senate floor, although he told Camp Rehoboth he
will vote to release the bill from committee.
Adams, the Senate pro tem, who represents the neighboring 19th District, which
includes his hometown of Bridgeville, is said to be leaning toward voting against
the bill. Although gay activists credit him with helping the bill’s prospects
by assigning it to the committee headed by Vaughn rather than Venables, they
say they are disappointed that Adams has difficulty backing the bill on its
merits.
Venables, one of the leading opponents of the bill, represents the 21st District,
whose border is located about 25 miles southwest of Rehoboth.
“We have an anomaly in Delaware,” said gay activist Douglas Marshall-Steele
of Milton, co-chair of the ACLU’s Gay & Lesbian Rights Project for
Sussex and Kent Counties. “We have Dixiecrats in the southern part of
the state who are more conservative than state Republicans.”
Marshall-Steele said that while the influx of new residents and visitors from
Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia is beginning to change the politics
of the area, he is concerned that many gay residents in the area are consumed
in the social atmosphere associated with the beach. According to Marshall-Steele,
not enough gays in the area are doing the political work, including writing
letters to their elected officials, to offset the political influence of conservative,
anti-gay groups that oppose H.B. 99.
“Camp Rehoboth has been supportive, but we need more support from Rehoboth
Beach and Lewes,” he said. “What all fair-minded people in Delaware
need to be doing is lobbying the Judiciary Committee.”
Elkins of Camp Rehoboth said gays in Rehoboth and Lewes are sending a “barrage” of
phone calls and e-mail messages to Simpson and other committee members. He
said he disagrees with claims that gay residents aren’t doing enough.
Elkins notes that state Sen. George Bunting, a Democrat whose district includes
Rehoboth Beach, supports H.B. 99 and has been a strong ally to gay rights advocates.
State Rep. Peter Swartzkopf, another Democrat who represents Rehoboth Beach,
is also a strong supporter of the bill, Elkins said.
While agreeing with Marshall-Steele’s assessment of the conservative
leanings of Democratic lawmakers in southern Delaware, Elkins takes an optimistic
view of gay issues. He noted that Simpson has begun to support other gay rights
and AIDS-related issues while he remains opposed to H.B. 99.
“He walked with us at the head of our candlelight vigil on World AIDS
Day,” Elkins said.
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