Delaware
Marty Rendon running to replace Schwartzkopf in Delaware House
Gay UNICEF advocate prioritizes affordable housing, transportation, healthcare
Marty Rendon wants to listen to the people.
The former UNICEF Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy announced Wednesday that he’s running to represent Rehoboth and Dewey Beach in Delaware’s House of Representatives. If he wins, he would replace Peter Schwartzkopf, who represented District 14 for more than two decades — and served as House speaker for 11 years.
Rendon, who’s gay, has spent his career in the halls of power, starting as an intern for U.S. Sen. George McGovern, working behind the scenes for House lawmakers, and working his way up to the vice president level at the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“I think it pays to have somebody who actually knows the ropes,” Rendon said in an interview Tuesday. “[Someone] who knows how to pass a bill, knows how you work with legislators, knows how you work with advocacy groups, knows how you build momentum for a cause and how you go to the halls of the legislature and advocate for something. That’s my specialty.”
Rendon, who currently sits on Delaware’s Human and Civil Rights Commission, lists several priorities on his website, including responding to environmental threats, securing affordable housing, improving transportation, attracting more medical services to the area, supporting schools, helping small businesses, and protecting civil rights. Details on how he plans to achieve the progress he wants are sparse for now. That’s on purpose.
“I think people get tired of not being listened to. I’m hearing that a lot,” he said. “Right now, I really want to listen. I’m not going, ‘I have all the answers and here’s all there is to it.’”
His constituents, he emphasized, rarely have specific policy ideas. They just want someone to listen to their issues and figure out how to solve them.
“I’m not the expert on these things,” he said, and proposed bringing in scholars and advocates for discussions.
Rendon hopes to hit the ground running once elected, working with friends and foes to advance his agenda. It won’t be his first rodeo in negotiations, he emphasized. When the Trump administration pursued its “America First” policy and withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, stopped funding the U.N. Refugee World Agency, and slashed funding to the World Health Organization, Rendon said he worked with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s staff to preserve funding for UNICEF.
“You can’t always just beat up on your friends and ask them to do more. You have to go to people that aren’t your friends,” he told the Blade. “You’ve got to be able to go to them and say, ‘Hey, we need to get this done,’ and then see what the pushback is.”
In negotiations, he wants to use both the carrot and the stick: On priorities like affordable housing, not only requirements for affordable units must exist, but also incentives. Advocacy groups bang the drums of change, he said, and the government must support them financially.
But would that require raising taxes? He’s not sure yet. What’s certain in his mind is that it’s time to find “creative” solutions to funding issues.
Seniority isn’t something on his mind, either. He’s been up and down the legislature advocating for policies as commissioner at the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission, he said, so many lawmakers already know him. Plus, he said, he could very well have a similar journey to Rep. Kerri Evelyn Harris, who went from newcomer in the chamber to majority whip in less than a year.
What’s more, Rendon says, he’s not eying a run for anything else.
“This is not a stepping stone for me,” he said. “I’m not using this to run for another office. This is what I want to do.”
Delaware
Delaware considers enshrining same-sex marriage into state Constitution
Senate Executive Committee will hear testimony on Wednesday
Delaware is considering amending its state Constitution to codify same-sex marriage. The bill, SB 100, will be heard in committee on Wednesday.
SB 100 was introduced in April 2025 by Democratic Sen. Russ Huxtable of the sixth district of Delaware and is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution. The act would “establish the right to marry as a fundamental right and that Delaware and its political subdivisions shall recognize marriages and issue marriage licenses to couples regardless of gender.”
“[SB 100] really came from the community that I represent and so that was the inspiration behind it, addressing concerns that my constituents have,” Huxtable told the Washington Blade.
CAMP Rehoboth, an LGBTQ community center and advocacy organization based in Rehoboth Beach, sent a letter to members of the Senate Executive Committee in support of SB 100.
“We applaud this proactive approach because it ensures that even if federal protections are weakened, same-sex couples in Delaware will retain their rights under Delaware law,” the letter reads. “We believe that doing so NOW is crucial for several reasons, particularly in the context of evolving legal landscapes and the erosion of civil rights long recognized in Federal law.”
CAMP Rehoboth Board President Leslie Ledogar is scheduled to testify at the Wednesday hearing on behalf of CAMP Rehoboth. She hopes to convey how personal this bill is for the organization.
Ledogar said CAMP Rehoboth has an almost 35-year history of advocating on behalf of LGBTQ people in the state of Delaware. Past Board President Chris Beagle and his husband were among the first couples to be married in Sussex County after same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in 2013, with CAMP Rehoboth hosting the ceremony.
The letter cited concerns with the possibility of Obergefell v. Hodges being overturned in the future, the landmark 2015 Supreme Court case that guaranteed the right to marry for same-sex couples.
“We really feel that this is a proactive and protective measure that ensures long-term security for LGBTQ+ couples,” Ledogar said. “While we do have that [protection] now, it could be just that temporary and just that fleeting, and everything we’ve worked for and built could fall apart, not by our own initiative but because of the stroke of a pen.”
The letter details the positive impact that the bill would have on Delaware’s LGBTQ community, such as affirming equality and human dignity, preventing legal backsliding and creating legal certainty and reflecting public support.
“[SB 100] would align the law with the values of a majority of Delawareans, ensuring that legal frameworks reflect contemporary societal norms and standards,” Ledogar said.
In 2024, the Public Religion Research Institution found that 61% of Delawareans favor allowing same-sex couples to marry.
Some critics of the bill cite religious concerns, though SB 100 explicitly protects clergy refusal, saying that “the right to marry regardless of gender does not infringe upon the right to freedom of religion because religious organizations and members of the clergy have the right to refuse to solemnize a marriage.”
The bill requires a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to pass. If passed, the next General Assembly after the next general election also has to pass it. Delaware is the only state in the country that can amend its state Constitution without a vote of the people. Constituents can register to watch the hearing virtually here.
Other states such as California, Colorado, and Hawaii have introduced and passed similar bills to protect the right of all people of all genders to marry under state law.
Huxtable said he hopes Delaware can send a message to other states that they can do the same thing and “don’t need to feel the threat from extremists.”
“I think it’s showing that the General Assembly in Delaware in particular are advocating for good policy celebrating the individual … We’re governing by our values and not our fears.”
Delaware
Delaware governor issues executive order creating LGBTQ+ Commission
Body to ‘strengthen ties’ between government and community
Delaware Gov. Bethany Hall-Long on Jan. 16 signed and issued an executive order creating a Delaware State LGBTQ+ Commission that she said will hold public forums for the exchange of ideas on the needs of the state’s diverse LGBTQ community.
“The nine-member commission will serve to strengthen ties between the government and LGBTQ+ organizations,” a statement released by the governor’s office says.
The statement adds that the new commission will “help remove barriers to societal participation for LGBTQ+ people and improve the delivery of services to the community in Delaware to areas such as employment, equality, education, and mental health.”
It says that members of the commission will be appointed by the governor and serve without monetary compensation for a three-year term.
According to the statement, the commission members “will represent different facets of the LGBTQ+ community, taking into account age, race, gender, identity, background, life experiences and other factors, and reflect the geographic diversity of the state.”
Hall-Long’s executive order creating the new commission came at a time when she is serving in effect as interim governor for a period of just two weeks. As lieutenant governor, she became governor on Jan. 7 when outgoing Gov. John Carney resigned to take office in his newly elected position of mayor of Wilmington.
Carney, who served two terms as governor, could not run again for that position under Delaware’s term limit law. Democrat Matt Myer won the governor’s election in November and will be sworn in as Delaware’s next governor on Jan. 21, when Hall-Long will step down.
Myer was expected to appoint the commission members in the weeks following his assumption of gubernatorial duties.
“Ultimately, the commission will advise the governor, members of the governor’s Cabinet, members of the General Assembly, and other policymakers on the effect of agency policies, procedures, practices, laws, and administrative rules on the unique challenges and needs of LGBTQ+ people,” the statement released by Hall-Long’s office says.
“It is truly an honor to bring this commission to fruition, and I am very excited to see the positive changes the commission will make in the lives of our LGBTQ+ neighbors,” Hall-Long said in the statement.
David Mariner, executive director of Sussex Pride, an LGBTQ advocacy group based in Delaware’s Sussex County, which includes Rehoboth Beach, praised the new executive order as an important step in advancing LGBTQ equality.
“It is my hope that through this commission, we can address the critical issues facing LGBTQ Delawareans,” Mariner said in his own statement.
“This includes developing an LGBTQ health report with a tangible roadmap to health equity, increasing collaboration and communication on hate crimes and hate-related activities, and ensuring that nondiscrimination protections, guaranteed by law, are a reality for all of our residents,” he said.
The statement announcing the LGBTQ+ Commission and the full text of the executive order can be accessed here.
Delaware
Delaware advocacy group to host panel on media’s role in countering hate
Blade editor among journalists participating in Wednesday event
LEWES, Del. — Speak Out Against Hate (SOAH) will hold its bi-monthly community meeting at 5 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Lewes Library and via Zoom. The meeting will concentrate on the role of the press in responding to the divisiveness and rising tide of hatred in our country and communities.
The meeting will feature a panel of journalists comprised of Chris Rauch, owner and publisher of the Cape Gazette; Benjamin Rothstein, journalist at the Daily State News and its sister paper the Greater Dover Independent; Kevin Naff, editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade; and Jake Owens, editor-in-chief of Spotlight Delaware.
Patty Maloney, president of SOAH said, “Following a national and state elections that saw our country nearly evenly divided, this important discussion with our local press will shine a light upon the role of the press locally and nationally in confronting the obvious chasm within our citizenry.”
For more information about the event and to register, please visit Speak Out Against Hate at soah-de.org.
Speak Out Against Hate was formed to confront and counter the rising tide of hate, whenever and wherever it exists.
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