Standing up for the LGBTQ+ community

As we approach LGBTQ+ Pride Month, I think about how before November 2020, never before had an openly LGBTQ+ candidate been elected to the Delaware General Assembly. And today, we have five openly LGBTQ+ members, including myself. Representation matters. First, LGBTQ+ Delawareans (especially youth) can see positive reflections of themselves in the community. Second, if members of minority communities do not have a seat at the table, issues affecting that community often cannot be identified, much less addressed.

Recently, I introduced legislation that would ban the LGBTQ panic defense in Delaware. The defense is a legal strategy asking a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression is to blame for a defendant’s violent reaction, up to and including murder. Since 2014, 17 states have passed similar legislation, and several other states are considering it. In 2013, the American Bar Association unanimously passed a resolution urging the federal government and state governments to ban this defense.

Over the years, the LGBTQ panic defense has been both successful and unsuccessful. In 1999, attorneys for the killers of Matthew Shepard put forth a panic defense, but it was not allowed by the trial judge. In 1995, Scott Amedure was fatally shot by acquaintance Jonathan Schmitz after Amedure revealed a secret crush on Schmitz on the “Jenny Jones Show.” The defense was allowed, but unsuccessful. In 2018, in Texas, James Miller stabbed to death his neighbor, Daniel Spencer, after Spencer allegedly made a pass at him. Miller was sentenced only to probation.

Last year, I worked with Sen. Marie Pinkney to pass legislation to update Delaware’s hate crimes laws. The legislation modernized and clarified the definition of a hate crime in numerous ways and also established a right to civil remedies for hate crime victims, and requires law enforcement to report hate crimes to the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust for tracking purposes. This year – for the third year in a row – I will pass a joint House and Senate resolution declaring June as Pride Month in Delaware.

In my 2021 remarks on the House floor, I said, “The 1969 Stonewall riots sparked the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement in America. For decades in America, police officers regularly raided gay bars – the one somewhat safe space where we could congregate. But on June 28, 1969, some brave members of our community took a stand. At the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City, they fought back against the police with whatever they could – garbage cans, bottles, glasses, rocks, bricks, their fists, and their voices.”

Of course, these pieces of legislation are in addition to numerous bills I have introduced and worked on to address issues including education, public safety, healthcare, labor, climate change and the environment, voting rights, and reform in the areas of campaign finance, elections and criminal justice. I look forward to continuing to represent members of Delaware’s LGBTQ+ community – and all Delawareans – in the General Assembly.