Governor Jack Markell signed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage on May 7, 2013, just hours after its passage in the Delaware House of Representatives and Senate.
Delaware was the eleventh U.S. state,[a] and the twelfth U.S. jurisdiction (after the District of Columbia), to allow same-sex couples to marry, preceding Minnesota and Rhode Island by one month.
In March 2011, senators David Sokola and Melanie George Smith introduced a bill to allow civil unions to the Delaware General Assembly.
[10] In September 2012, Representative Peter Schwartzkopf, who became House Speaker in January 2013, said he expected the General Assembly to vote on same-sex marriage in 2013 and that he would support it, but was uncertain of the legislation's prospects.
[11] On February 1, 2013, in anticipation of legislative activity, Francis Malooly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Wilmington, authored a letter to parishioners stating that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman that must be "cherished and defended".
[24] When the statute took effect on July 1, Peterson and her partner were the first same-sex couple to legally convert their civil union into a marriage.
[25] The first same-sex couple to marry were Joseph Daigle and Dan Cole, in a semi-public ceremony attended by hundreds and officiated by New Castle County Clerk of the Peace Ken Boulden on July 1, 2013, in the Marian Cruger Coffin Gardens at Gibraltar Mansion in Wilmington.
[26][27] A bill removing "homosexuality" and "lesbianism" from the definition of misconduct which may be used as grounds for a divorce was introduced to the Delaware General Assembly on March 13, 2016.