Synopsis
This Act aligns Delaware’s non-discrimination laws. Delaware has several broad laws that prohibit discrimination in public accommodations, housing, employment, and insurance but also has many narrow non-discrimination laws that apply to a specific entity, or type of entity, even though a broad law also prohibits discrimination by that entity. This Act aligns the narrower non-discrimination laws with the applicable broad non-discrimination law by also prohibiting discrimination on any other basis protected under the applicable broad law. Adding the reference to the chapter for the applicable broad law includes all protected classes, definitions, and actions that are currently protected under the broad law or that are added to the broad law in the future. This Act does not make any substantive changes to current non-discrimination laws but is necessary because most of the narrow laws do not contain all of the same protected classes as the broad law that also applies or do not include the definitions of classes that are also in the broad law. These inconsistencies could lead to a misunderstanding by someone reading only an incomplete narrow law, and eventually litigation, about what constitutes illegal discrimination by an entity covered by both the narrow and broad laws. For example: • The non-discrimination provision for the Board of Podiatry under § 506(c) of Title 24 does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of the following classes, for which discrimination is prohibited under Chapter 45 of Title 6: age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. • Only 4 of the 42 chapters in Title 24 establishing professional licensing boards contain a non-discrimination provision, but this does not mean that the other 38 licensing boards are free to discriminate. Aligning these 4 non-discrimination provisions with Chapter 45 of Title 6 clarifies that Chapter 45 of Title 6 also applies to the 38 professional boards that do not have specific non-discrimination provisions. • For merit system state employees, § 5953 of Title 29 only prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and housing status but in addition to these classes, § 711 of Title 19 prohibits any employer in this State, including the State, from discriminating in employment based on age, marital status, color, national origin, or disability. • Most of the narrower non-discrimination laws do not include all of the definitions in the applicable broad law. Adding the reference to the applicable broad law incorporates those definitions into the narrower law. For example: 1. All of Delaware’s non-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination based on race and all of the broad non-discrimination laws define “race” as including traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyle. However, very few of the narrower non-discrimination laws include this definition of “race”. 2. Several narrow non-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity but do not include or specifically reference the definitions of “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” in the applicable broad non-discrimination law. Specifically, this Act revises the following narrow non-discrimination laws to align with the applicable broad non-discrimination law, as follows: To align with the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, Chapter 45 of Title 6, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, age, marital status, creed, religion, color, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin by establishments that offer goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to the general public, including government agencies: • Transportation networks, § 1917 of Title 2. • Parkland owned by civic associations, § 8110 of Title 9. • Jury service, § 4502 of Title 10. • Private busin