Among Delaware's congressional delegation only Chris Coons supports marriage equality

As usual, the News Journal's online site defeats me, so I am copying this from the dead-tree edition.

Governor Jack Markell supports marriage equality, although Brian Selander says he has "no timeline" for achieving that advance through a legislative agenda.

That's frankly business as usual for a Governor in an election year (and still probably would have been for President Obama without Joe Biden's plain-spoken big mouth).

But the rest of the news is disheartening:

Support for gay marriage varied pretty wildly among Delaware's federal delegation--all Democrats.

Sen. Chris Coons was the only member of the delegation to offer an endorsement of gay marriage, telling The News Journal, "This is an important moment on the journey to equality: the first time a sitting president has endorsed the idea that every American, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to marry the person they love. Period."

James Allen, a spokesperson for Rep. John Carney, said Carney "is proud to support Delaware's civil unions law and he will continue working to ensure that same-sex couple receive the same legal rights and benefits at heterosexual couples."

Senior Sen. Tom Carper is apparently still "evolving" on the issue, to use Obama's phrase.

Carper insists that he has no formal position on gay marriage--or on attempts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Carper voted for the legislation.

Comments

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