First Civil Union in Delaware, sermon was done by Senator Chris Coons

[LynneSin]

3. I understand where you're coming from but you have to understand how things are setup in Delaware

back in the 90s, Delaware passed a DOMA law and unfortunately to overturn it would require more votes then what we have right now. The DE senate worked with Gay-rights group to create a civil union bill that would mirror everything that marriage has and wanted to pass it now while we had the votes in congress. In 2010 we picked up enough extra seats in the Delaware congress that we had the majority needed to pass Civil Unions and Medical Marijuana. These laws required a simple majority. But to repeal DOMA we would need 3/5 of the vote, which we don't have just yet. Governor Markell wanted to take advantage of the numbers we so at least same sex couples can have the same rights as heteros.

The fight isn't finished in Delaware. Perhaps to get those extra votes needed to repeal our state DOMA law is a few years to show a few of the senators and representatives in Dover that allowing same sex couples to marry is a good thing for Delaware.

So my question to you is this. Right now there are about 30+ states with DOMA laws on the book and for most states repealing state law takes more than a simple majority. Should we deny all rights to same-sex couples because we insist on the word marriage only or should we do what we can to create laws today that gives same sex couples the right to form a union that is identical to marriage except the actual word 'marriage' (which is how it was written in DE with help from gay right groups. BTW that first couple that married - the one spouse was on of the writers of the DE law that was recently passed).

My guess is this - with Obama now openly requesting the repeal of DOMA laws, I suspect DOMA is going to head to the Supreme Court where hopefully it will get repealed (right now it's at 4-4 with Justice Kennedy being the toss-up). When that happens, all those state DOMA laws will be nullified.

But until then, we need to get laws on the book today that can allow same-sex couples the same benefits as hetero couples. Better to move forward than to stand still.