First State bigotry

The competition scooped us, so allow me to link to this Delaware State News story by Joe Rogalsky on the effort by state Sen. John C. Still III, R-Dover, to amend Delaware's Constitution to ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Senate Minority Leader John C. Still III, R-Dover, said Monday that he would introduce legislation that day to add language to Delaware's constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The amendment would specify that homosexual marriages licensed in other states are not valid in Delaware.

A law passed in 1996 already defines marriage and bars the state from recognizing homosexual marriages from other states.

Sen. Still said he wanted the language included in the constitution to guard against a rogue judge who could rule the state must recognize out-of-state homosexual marriages. …

Sen. Still said his proposed amendment forbids civil unions because they are "marriages under a different name" and he wants to prevent "overzealous" judges from forcing Delaware to recognize a civil union sanctioned in another state.

"This is part of the radical gay agenda," Sen. Still said. "They want to redefine marriage.

"The code is silent now on civil unions. When I am through, the code will not be silent."

Still's proposal has 10 cosponsors — which is a lot considering Delaware's state senate has only 21 members. And the minority leader points out that his measure has bipartisan support.

Kudos to Rogalsky for getting the quote that captures the tenor of that bipartisan support. Here is democratic state Sen. Robert L. Venables:

I don't know of anything that disgusts me more than seeing two women get married on television, where one is dressed like a man and has a haircut like a man. I guess they take turns being the man on different nights.

It's not easy, in two sentences, to capture so many of the hallmarks of anti-gay bigotry: the angry misogyny, the utter lack of perspective, the lurid fascination that suggests deep-undercurrents of fantasy and curiosity — it's all there.

"We must do everything we can to preserve the institution of marriage," Sen. Still says.

But I still haven't heard the senator answer this question, from Wendy Becker of Rhode Island, "How does my marriage affect the sanctity of yours?"

(The link to the DSN article is via columnist Al Mascitti's blog. Mascitti also has a nice column summarizing Delaware's proud history on the "cutting edge of bigotry.")