---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SEXUAL OFFENSES."
description: "This bill adds the intentional touching of another person with semen to the definition of sexual contact. By doing so, the act of a person intentionally touching another person with semen without consent becomes the crime of unlawful sexual contact third degree."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "HB 246"
citation: "Delaware HB 246 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ernesto B Lopez", "Nicole Poore", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-06-21"
last_action: "2019-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ba2b9206-188b-4691-9883-898a03b934f2"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47808"
source_hash: "d852037078218b3e9567a2b3932114be41d191cae60e1b9a8de720b99518e734"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 246 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SEXUAL OFFENSES.

This bill adds the intentional touching of another person with semen to the definition of sexual contact. By doing so, the act of a person intentionally touching another person with semen without consent becomes the crime of unlawful sexual contact third degree.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=47808&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB246)

## Votes

- SM — **20–1** (pass) · upper
- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Ernesto B Lopez — primary (person)
- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — cosponsor (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-06-21** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-25** Re-Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-26** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2019-06-27** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-07-01** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2019-07-01** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2019-07-23** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ba2b9206-188b-4691-9883-898a03b934f2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).