Transliance to Host Virtual Meeting with Mark Purpura

Mark Purpura, attorney and advocate for LGBTQ equality, will speak at the Transliance virtual meeting on Tuesday, July 28 at 7 pm. All are welcome.

Mark is president of the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware, Inc., board member of CAMP Rehoboth, Inc., and of the ACLU of Delaware. 

Mark will discuss policies best for schools in Delaware to protect transgender students. He will also discuss the recent Supreme Court decision protecting LGBTQ people in employment and its potential impact on trans people, including in education. Mark will share information about the organizations he works with and their efforts to protect the LGBTQ community.

Mark has advocated for LGBTQ civil rights in Delaware for over a decade, including drafting and co-leading the advocacy and educational campaigns for Delaware's civil union, marriage equality, and gender identity nondiscrimination acts. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of the First State, Delaware’s highest honor for meritorious service, by Governor Jack Markell in recognition of his service in support of LGBTQ equality. 

From 2017-2018, Mark served as a member of the Delaware Department of Education’s Development Team to create proposed Regulation 225, which as originally drafted and proposed, would have explicitly prohibited discrimination against students in Delaware schools based on their gender identity or expression.

Mark has successfully worked to protect transgender Delawareans from discrimination in insurance (including private insurance and state insurance coverage for transition related healthcare), to ease restrictions for name changes and gender marker changes on birth certificates and drivers licenses, to prohibit the practice of conversion therapy on Delaware youth, to modernize assisted reproduction laws for the benefit of LGBTQ Delawareans, and to protect transgender inmates from discrimination in prisons.

In 2016, he was honored by the Delaware State Bar Association’s LGBT Section for his exceptional commitment to improving the legal services afforded to members of Delaware’s LGBT community. 

In 2014, he received the Delaware Distinguished Service Medal from the Adjutant General of the State of Delaware for his pro bono legal service to the Delaware National Guard. 

Mark is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, and received his law degree with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law. Mark is also a Director of Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., in Wilmington, Delaware, where he practices corporate, trust, and financial institutions law.

The July 29, 7 p.m. meeting is a Zoom meeting.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83774220517 

Meeting ID: 837 7422 0517

League of Women Voters Has Information about Voting

Concerns about the safety of in-person voting in the face of the coronavirus pandemic prompted Delaware Governor John Carney and the state Department of Elections to delay the primary and school board election dates and to make absentee ballots available to all eligible Delaware voters. Below are key points that voters need to know in order to cast their ballots.

Delaware has approved voting by mail for all upcoming elections, including the general election in November.

School Board elections are set for July 21.

The state primary elections are September 15.

Voting Options

Delaware voters can vote by absentee ballot in the July elections. Voters should select the “sick” or “physically disabled” reason codes when requesting absentee ballots for quarantine or social distancing reasons. 

• Voters can use the ivote.de.gov voter portal to request absentee ballots online or can fill out forms electronically at elections.delaware.gov.

• School election absentee ballot request forms will not be mailed out; voters should request those online. Paper ballots will be sent by postal mail and must be returned in physical form.

In-Person Voting

Polling places will be open, but there may be fewer of them due to expanded absentee voting. Voters can find a list of open polling places in the absentee request mailing from the Department of Elections.

• For the July 21 school board elections, in-person voters can use any open polling place within their school district.

• If you requested an absentee ballot but didn’t cast it, you can still vote in person.

• When using Delaware’s new voting machines, individual voters should always verify that the printed ballot reflects their intended choice(s) before finalizing their vote. This is an important security measure when any automated ballot-marking device is used. Poll workers will be available to answer any questions regarding this procedure.

• At polling places, masks and other personal protective equipment, signage, social distancing markers, and cleaning of equipment between voters will be used to keep voters and poll workers safe.