This is not a dream, this is real. Although many have dreamed of this day for a long time.
It now appears a virtual certainty that legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in Delaware will pass both houses of the Delaware General Assembly, and will be signed by the Governor this month.
In a little-noticed, but critical development, Sen. David P. Sokola introduced Senate Bill 121 at the end of last week. It was assigned to the Senate Insurance Committee (more on that in a graf or two). This bill is, for all intents and purposes, identical to HB 5, and it has virtually the same sponsors as HB 5. As everyone here knows, HB 5 has languished in the Senate Executive Committee, where there are/were not sufficient votes to release the bill to the Senate floor.
While the Beast Who Slumbers doesn’t know for sure what caused this monumental development, he guesses that perhaps Senators Peterson and Sokola had the votes to petition HB 5 to the floor and, out of courtesy, offered this face-saving mechanism to Sen. Adams. It is, after all, the President Pro-Tempore (Adams) who assigns bills to committee, and, in this case, the bill was assigned to a committee guaranteed to vote it out to the floor.
The Senate Insurance Committee, to which SB 121 has been assigned, is about as receptive a committee for this bill as one could ask. 4 of the 5 senators on the Insurance Committee are either sponsors or have publicly committed to supporting the anti-discriminatory legislation (Blevins, Cloutier, McDowell and Sokola). Only Bethany Hall-Long has not publicly stated her support.
In other words, folks, this bill is going to the Senate floor soon. It has the votes to pass there, and it will then go to the House, where HB 5 has already passed.
Although passage appears to be virtually certain, it is essential that you contact your senators and representatives, and either ask them to support the bill or to thank them for supporting the bill.
El Somnambulo is having trouble slumbering, he’s so excited. Rest assured, there’ll be plenty of time to sleep after the bill becomes law. Until then, get busy!