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Illinois State Senate
Just moments ago the Illinois Senate passed the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (SB 10) on a vote of 34 to 21.
The bill, which now moves on to the House, enjoys wide-ranging support from Illinois voters, President Barack Obama, Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois GOP Chair Pat Brady and former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, African American leaders, clergy and faith leaders, and so many others.
If the bill becomes law, Illinois will become the 10th state to allow same-sex couples to marry and Gov. Quinn will become the sixth consecutive Catholic governor to sign marriage equality legislation.
Contact Equality Illinois to see how you can help make it happen.
Earlier this week Windy City Times posted the Q & A “ACLU: What the marriage bill says and does in Illinois“. Below are a few excerpts. Click over to the article to find out more about what passage of the marriage law may mean for you or your loved ones.
Could a referendum overturn marriage equality in Illinois?
ACLU: Only the legislature can initiate referenda in Illinois to amend the Constitution to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry. Three such proposed amendments have been filed by Illinois legislators this session. However, similar amendments to write discrimination into the Illinois Constitution have been filed for many years without moving forward, and we are confident that none of these amendments will be successful in achieving the required three-fifths majority in each house.
When would the law take effect?
ACLU: Thirty days after the bill is signed into effect by the Governor.”
Will civil union couples automatically be entered into a marriage?
ACLU: Couples with civil unions will have two options. They may have a marriage ceremony to convert their civil union into a marriage. To do so, they will apply for a marriage license, have their marriage solemnized in a religious or civil ceremony and then register the marriage. (The law provides that the fee for the marriage license is to be waived in these circumstances.)
Alternatively, if a couple in a civil union would rather not go through a new ceremony, for one year following the date that the marriage law becomes effective, they can simply have their civil union designated as a marriage—again, at no fee—with the date of the marriage to be recorded as the date of the original civil union.
16 Comments
What a nice Valentine’s Day gift!
Indeed! This is fantastic news, Laurel. Thanks for keeping us informed.
And to reinforce that smile on your face, check out this new video about the maine win. I was smiling so much AND I cried in my salad. That’s pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEuUAm-aCTQ&feature=player_embedded
Great video, thanks for posting!!
Porno Pete hasn’t posted anything about this lately, just a link to a radio show. Judging by his copious use of scare quotes I’m going to have to assume that he either may not want people to know that he failed in the state he lives in or that he stroked out.
Let me work on this.
Gay marriage is going to obliterate the world. Or something.
The homophobes get to get on camera and spew lies about gays…and get away with it, with little pushback from the anchors on the network.
Hello network exec’s, how has 10 years of same sex marriage in Mass, made your life more difficult?
Just STFU then.
Now I understand — that’s what caused that big meteor strike!
Oh, wait — that was in Russia.
I hope Quinn signs this before the Supreme Court hearings. The legalization of gay marriage in the 5th largest state would be a huge statement of public support for marriage equality going into the hearings. This is the bump we need to sway the Supreme Court.
And it would be a grand thing for Illinois to be among the “free” states before gay marriage is legalized judicially. A wonderful thing to always remember that you live in a state that granted fair marriage rights before the nation’s highest court mandated them.
Next stop, Minnesota! I love Minnesota–a truly fair-minded place. Come on, Minnesota!
One token Republican voting yes isn’t bipartisan
I was speaking more broadly – see the 2nd paragraph. Sorry for any confusion.
The republicans fear a campaign against them. NOM and the right-wing of the GOP made things difficult for the four republican NY state senators who voted their consciences on marriage equality. It was one of NOM’s few intimidation wins. Hopefully, they’ll vote their consciences in the Illinois assembly. Nobody could watch the video I posted above and feel it’s ok to deprive people of such happiness.
NOM, as I recall, only “won” in one instance. One senator kept his seat quite handily, one retired, one won the primary and lost to a (pro-marriage) Democrat, and one lost his primary to a wingnut who then lost the general election to another pro-marriage Democrat. This is what NOM calls a “sweeping victory.” Remember — Brian Brown is running headlong to overtake Tony Perkins as the most mendacious person in public discourse.
Oh, and I forgot to mention — NOM and the other wingnut anti-gay groups don’t really have a lot of traction here. Our Republicans are more likely to be moderate, and if not liberal, then at least live-and-let-live on social issues. The loonies tend not to last too long when they do get into office. There’s also the fact that the only way a law can be repealed is by the legislature — the only popular referenda allowed are advisory only and have no legal force. And NOM has been sooo successful in getting equal marriage laws repealed legislatively.
The second paragraph does not really speak to bipartisan support, either, though.
“Religious” does not necessarily mean Republican, especially in Illinois. It doesn’t even mean that all religious folk belong to any political party or that they don’t belong to one of several third parties.
So, The only people whose party affiliation we think we know for certain from Paragraph 2 are the state Republican chair and former RNC chair Mehlman.
The Republican Party is trying to re-brand, so who knows that the motives of Brady and Mehlman are?
I know nothing about Brady, but Mehlman seemed to have no difficulty being RNC chair while Republicans were putting anti-marriage constitutional amendments on the ballot all around the country as a way of making sure their wingnuts turned out for Dimson.
And that move will harm the cause of equal rights for a very long time. So, I have a lot of trouble trusting Mehlman’s motives on anything.
But, I digress. I just don’t think the term “bi-partisan” is accurate in this instance, even taking paragraph 2 into account.
Maybe the left should not be so understanding about elected officials who give a crap about representing the people who elect them only until polls close on election day.
We can legitimately debate whether they should vote as their constituents seem to want them to vote or whether they should vote their own consciences. But, I am pretty sure that ignoring both those things in favor of some religious cult or group of gun manufacturers or whatever is reprehensible.
The right refuses to accept crap like that, but we are so rational that we will. I urge that we, too, start being irrational about being represented.
There was more R support than is evident by the vote tally. It is pathetic that some pro-equality R’s took cover behind the lopsided ‘yes’ total that didn’t need their vote to pass, and so voted ‘no’ to appease the knuckledraggers in their districts, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t work behind the scenes to help it pass. For example:
Let’s just hope that pro-equality Republicans in the House are more willing than their colleagues in the Senate to show support for the bill with their vote, not just with quiet backstage negotiations.