Pride Goeth Before The Gavel Falls

Happy Pride Month from the Delaware General Assembly!

Horrified onlookers will see the sarcasm in that title, as the General Assembly has a long way to go down the rainbow road.

While there are efforts to improve the state for LGBT+ residents, many are annual (updating definitions), others don’t make it to a vote (protection for trans care providers – two years in a row), and all discussions include comments that are akin to the high pitched whine of the dentist’s drill. Wincing in pain, I recap.

Last week’s update to the definition of sexual orientation in the Senate featured a Democratic no vote (Brown), a reference to pedophilia (Richardson), and worst of all, Buckson. Buckson not only questioned where protections for sexual orientations “end,” he suggested that the LGBT in his own life think “that’s enough” and that we don’t need “more letters” because we can’t say “what does the plus mean.” Every third sentence or so in his diatribe he shares that “it shouldn’t be offensive to say.” Well, it is, buddy. And what’s worse — he said that he used to teach sex ed to kids (YIKES), teens are already too confused, and recommended adults leave the room to let the kids sort it out? Hoping those kids have since gotten therapy… and tested.

The House is disturbing on the Democratic level, where a bill this simple is somehow unwhippable, though at least they go silently (Lumpy, Cooke, Parker Selby, Schwartzkopf, Matthews – Absent).  (Editor’s Note:  The bill passed, but without the support of the aforementioned troglodytes.)

Republican Senators similarly gave comments about LGBT+ (emphasis on +!) during the annual Pride Month Resolution… but they didn’t stop there (although comically they got distracted and voted Yes but didn’t rescind the roll call in time). They also proposed a resolution naming July as “American Pride Month” and ran it on the same day and agenda as the regular Pride resolution. The chatter on the Democratic side seemed to be “… wait what” but it had already been packaged up on the Consent Agenda of resolutions.

And let’s not forget the GOP trophy bill “fairness in girls sports,” which isn’t even co-sponsored by their only female elected official.

With failures on both sides of the aisle as Session and Pride month end, perhaps it’s time we elect more people we can be proud of.