Maybe I've missed it, but I'd like to know what, if anything, Senator Biden is doing to change the law to prevent discrimination in his home state of Delaware. I am ashamed to say this, but it's Democrats, not Republicans, standing in the way of progress, so Sen. Biden can plausibly say "Guys, let the bill out of committee -- you're making things tough for me."
Legislation that would protect Delawareans from discrimination based on sexual orientation has failed for years, thwarted by senators who used the power held by committee chairmen to bury the bill in a desk drawer without ever bringing it to the full Senate for a vote.
In each of the past two General Assemblies, Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville, has assigned it to a committee headed by a loyalist stridently opposed to the bill -- first, Sen. Robert L. Venables Sr., D-Laurel, and then, Sen. James T. Vaughn, D-Clayton.
More after the flip...
More from the Wilmington News-Journal:
The bill would bar discrimination based on sexual orientation in such areas as housing, public accommodations, insurance and employment, putting Delaware in line with 17 other states, according to the civil rights organization The Human Rights Campaign of Washington, D.C.
In 1999, as a previous version of the bill was under consideration, the state Department of Labor tracked how many sexual-orientation discrimination complaints it received in a month. The total was 42, or just more than 500 a year, said Sen. Karen E. Peterson, D-Stanton, who was the director of the Industrial Affairs division at the time.
One of the bill's supporters, Mitch Crane of Milford, vice president for political action with The Delaware Stonewall Democratic Club, said his organization had requested a meeting with the Senate's Adams, but had received no reply. The club is an affiliate of a national organization pressing for equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
"All we ask is that [the Senate] have a right to vote it up or down," Crane said.
"We think it should be embarrassing to Democrats that the Republican-controlled House will consider and act on such legislation and the Democrat-controlled Senate won't consider it and bring it to the floor," Crane said. "We hope that will change."
I think a U.S. senator seeking the presidency needs to be asked about this situation in his home state, one -- and he needs to be asked about it OFTEN. Fellow Dems in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina -- are you listening? :-)