Don’t let Minnesota’s anti-gay ballot measure get you down. Last night Delaware governor Jack Markell signed the state’s civil union bill into law. And Markell’s speech will make all that Minnesota snow filling your jaded heart melt clean away.
“Tonight, with the signing of this law, we say to any Delawarean regardless of sexual orientation – if you’ve committed yourself to someone, and you’ve made that pledge to spend your life together in partnership, when life or death decisions come, we honor your right to make those decisions together.
“Tonight, we say to loving and committed couples across the state who want the law to endorse the promise that they made long ago in their hearts – ‘Your love is equally valid and deserving, your family is now equal under the law.’
“And tonight, we say to children of gay and lesbian parents in committed relationships all over our state – and there are so many wonderful kids, including many here tonight, growing up in those families all over our state – we say to you: It doesn’t matter if your parents are gay or straight. The people you love and look up to and that are dedicating their lives and love to raising you – those are your parents.
“You are a family. And while we’ve known it, and you’ve known it for years, tonight, that equality becomes real under law.”
For the record, that’s 12 states now that provide same-sex marriage licenses, civil unions, or domestic partnership with most of the state-level rights afforded to spouses. So the next time some turd burglar says, “31 states have voted to uphold traditional marriage,” you can say almost half as many states have chosen the other way. It won’t shut them up, but darn if the truth doesn’t feel good.
Thumbnail image via
JHW
The page you link to doesn’t count Delaware, so there are actually thirteen (plus one counting DC): Vermont, Connecticut, DC, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts with marriage, and Nevada, Oregon, Washington, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, and Delaware with either civil unions or domestic partnerships that are (at least in theory) substantially equivalent to marriage in terms of their state-level rights and benefits.
JHW
An arguably more meaningful measure is to look at population. Two Balkinization posts make that calculation, already out of date because of Delaware (but it’s really small so it doesn’t affect the numbers much): http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/12/twenty-eight-percent.html and http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/12/almost-40.html
Joetx
I wouldn’t say that DE “loves” you. Although better than nothing, civil unions are still 2nd-class.
Perhaps you should rewrite the title as “Delaware LIKES You!”