Marriage Equality Comes to Delaware

Gov. Markell signs the marriage-equality bill on the staircase of Legislative Hall.

The First State today became the eleventh to legalize same-sex marriage when Governor Jack Markell signed a marriage bill into law just minutes after it passed by a vote of 12-9 in the state senate. "I do not intend to make any of you wait one moment longer," he told a group of supporters. The bill was passed by the state house, 23-18, a couple of weeks ago.

Democratic state senator Karen Peterson came out publicly during today's senate debate and acknowledged her 24-year partnership, saying:

Neither of us chose to be gay, any more than heterosexual people chose to be straight. Nobody gets to make those decisions anymore than we decide to be tall, short, black or white. We are what God made us. We don’t need to be fixed. We’re not broken. . . . if my happiness somehow demeans or diminishes your marriage, then you need to work on your marriage.

Marriages will commence on July 1, and existing civil unions in Delaware will automatically be converted to marriages then.