Why is it when I open up a new copy of Letters I feel like I’m reading
some kind of political magazine every month?
My partner and I read Letters every month
and never miss an issue. We’re transplanted locals from the Washington,
DC area and have been here full time for five years now and love living
here in Rehoboth, we wouldn’t have it any other way!
Every time I open up a new copy of
Letters I cringe at all the political speak in all the articles the
monthly writer’s write. It seems like every writer has to have their
monthly jab at conservatives or the Republican Party somehow consistently.
They just have to get their jab in, even if the article or story is not
about politics at all or nothing to do with the Republican party.
I thought the gay community was tolerant of
others and didn’t speak hate speech towards others like others do
towards us on a daily basis. Am I the only gay conservative in Delaware? It
sure seems like it sometimes when I read Letters every month! Please
don’t just assume that every gay person is a liberal or a Democrat,
because I’m not! It doesn’t mean I’m a hard line Republican or
Bush lover either. I’m just a little more conservative than others
are, no harm done!
Please stop the hate speech, it only harms our
community!
The only gay conservative on DelMarVa.
Barry Kutz
Beginning last month supporters of
important equal-rights legislation will collectively be lobbying their
elected representatives to support Senate Bill 141, and I hope they are
successful.
The measure bans discrimination against
Delawareans based on their sexual orientation. Guaranteeing civil rights
for everyone is the right thing to do, and it is also good for our
economy.
The Delaware House of Representatives
deserves credit for passing previous versions of this bill three times,
but the legislation has not yet passed the Senate.
There has been so much public interest in
this bill that the committee members should allow the bill to be heard and
come for a vote before the full Senate. In fact, in 2002, a huge 78% of
Delawareans polled were in favor of a full Senate vote for a previous
version of this bill. And last year, 900 Delawareans signed an online
petition, within a few days after I started it, urging senators to bring
the bill up for a floor vote.
If the supporters’ efforts fail this
year, seeing this bill become law will be a high priority for me as
governor. It’s important to our economy and to our future as a state to
pass this legislation. Simply put, Delaware must not be a state
where citizens are denied a job or a place to live because of bigotry.
Personnel at 29 of Delaware’s top 50
employers, and residents in 17 other states and the District of Columbia,
already enjoy the protections SB 141 offers. Interestingly, Wisconsin
became the first state to adopt such a law—in 1982. Twenty-six years
later, Delaware, “the First State,” has yet to enact such necessary
protection.
The economic argument against such
legislation has been that it will create risk of new lawsuits. But the
federal General Accounting Office released a report in 2001 finding that
there is “no indication that these laws have generated a significant
amount of litigation.”
In fact, instead of hurting businesses,
eradicating discrimination will buoy the Delaware economy. Among the 500
largest companies in America, 90 percent have enacted policies forbidding
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This can only indicate
that the most successful U.S. companies believe that prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is good business
practice. Some corporations, including some very well respected and
successful companies, have gone further and endorsed legislation
forbidding any company from discriminating in this way. Company leaders
know they will be unable to attract the employee talent they need if
potential workers are not satisfied that companies are committed to equal
rights. A thriving Delaware economy of the future requires the best
people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
In addition to SB 141, I hope the
legislature passes Senate Bill 10, which would make straight and gay
domestic partners of state employees and pensioners eligible for the same
benefits spouses receive.
Fourteen other states and at least 19 of
Delaware’s top 50 employers have already authorized benefits for
domestic partners, and at least 264 of the Nation’s 500 largest
corporations and over 9,000 other private and public employers currently
provide domestic partner benefits.
Locally, New Castle County has been
providing domestic partnership health insurance since 1997.
Both measures—the bill to protect
Delawareans against discrimination based on sexual orientation and the
measure to extend benefits to domestic partners—are ultimately about
equality, a fundamental principle of America. All Delawareans deserve
equality and these bills deserve to become law this year.
Jack Markell
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