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LGBTQ+ Commission

Mark Purpura

Biography

Mark Purpura (he/him) is the President of the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware, Inc.  He  has advocated for LGBTQ+ civil rights in Delaware since 2010, including drafting and co-leading the advocacy and educational campaigns for Delaware’s civil union, marriage equality and gender identity nondiscrimination legislation. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of the First State, Delaware’s highest honor for meritorious service, by Governor Jack Markell in recognition of service in support of LGBT equality. 

Also in 2016, he was honored by the Delaware State Bar Association’s LGBTQ+ Section for his exceptional commitment to improving the legal services afforded to members of Delaware’s LGBTQ+ community and to the advancement of the legal interests of LGBTQ+ Delawareans.  In 2012, he received the Delaware State Bar Association President’s Award for advocacy for equality for all Delawareans. In 2022, Mark was named as the LGBTQ+ “Champion of Pride” for Delaware by The Advocate.

Mark has worked to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools, to protect transgender Delawareans from discrimination in insurance (including private insurance and state insurance coverages for transition related healthcare) and public accommodations, to ease restrictions for name-changes and gender marker changes on identity documents, to prohibit the practice of conversion therapy on Delaware youth, to prohibit the LGBTQ+ panic defense in Delaware, to modernize assisted reproduction laws for the benefit of LGBTQ+ Delawareans, and to protect transgender inmates from discrimination in prisons.

Mark is a former Chair of the Board of Directors of AIDS Delaware, a former member of the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Delaware and CAMP Rehoboth, and a former member of the Delaware Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 

Mark is also a Director of Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., in Wilmington, Delaware, where he practices corporate, trust and financial institutions law.  He has been recognized for excellence in law in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers and Delaware Today magazine.  Mark received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California and his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

In November 2022, Mark married his husband, Dr. Matthew Adams, at Vanderwende Acres in Seaford, Delaware. Their good friend, Congresswoman Sarah McBride, officiated the ceremony. Mark, Matt and their Labrador, Rustin, split time living between Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.