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Loading...Illinois Civil Unions Signed into Law
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Monday signed into law a civil unions bill that opens up for same-sex couples many of the state governed rights that are afforded to their married heterosexual counterparts.
Quinn signed the bill before a crowd of hundreds at the Chicago Cultural Center. He invoked the state’s most famous politician, Abraham Lincoln, by saying, “We’re a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and it shall not perish from the earth.”
The numerous other speakers at the signing ceremony included Greg Harris, the gay state representative who sponsored the bill, who like many others implied that civil unions were a step forward but not the final goal, which is marriage equality. “There is more work to be done,” he said. “Things can get better.”
Rep. Deb Mell, the other openly gay member of the state legislature, discussed her activism and the support of her father, Chicago alderman Richard Mell, and her fiancée, Christin Baker. “I realized the act of being out and telling our story was one of the most powerful things we could do,” she told ceremony attendees. Before the signing, she told The Advocate of civil unions, “This is a huge first step forward toward full marriage equality.”
At the ceremony, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon added, “I hope that other states will join us and I hope the federal government will join us as well. Full equality is not too much to ask for.”
The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (S.B. 1716) goes into effect on July 1 and allows same-sex couples to access many of the state sanctioned rights afforded married couples, including, among others, automatic hospital visitation rights, surrogate end-of-life decision making rights, as well as adoption and parental rights.
The Illinois Legislature passed the legislation during the lame duck session late last year—the Illinois House passed the bill 61-52 on Nov. 30, and the Senate passed the bill 32-24 on Dec. 1.
However, some are displeased by the signing of the bill. David E. Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute, is quoted by CNN calling the bill a “derisive” and “anti-family” measure that is the work of the so-called “homosexual lobby” that he feels is trying to “impose this highly contentious and controversial policy on the people of Illinois.”
The civil unions law, however, doesn’t seem quite as controversial or as much of an imposition as Mr Smith perceives it, with an October 2010 poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute(.pdf) of likely Illinois voters showing that two thirds of respondents supported some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples.
When this law comes into force later this year Illinois will join California, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in offering same-sex couples civil partnership or domestic partnership rights. Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Washington D.C. allow for same-sex marriage.
As mentioned above, advocates hope that this civil unions law will be a first step toward marriage equality for the state.
Read more: chicago, civil partnerships, civil rights, civil unions, gay rights, illinois, lgbt rights, marriage equality
Photo used under the Creative Commons Attribution License, with thanks to -Marlith-.
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+ add your ownthanx for good news
Maybe these marriage protection groups should stop trying to prevent same sex marriage and try to find out why so many heterosexual marriages end in divorce.
Finally a sensible decision. Great news.
Thank you Gov. Quinn!!!!:) Great news~
Thanks for the good news! =)
Congratulations Illinois. I'm doing a victory dance right now. We Hawaiians are right behind you.
The operative word is "CIVIL".
BRAVO - one more domino hits the deck. Of course there is the fact that we LGBTQ *human beings* deserve FULL equality - MARRIAGE EQUALITY. Adoption rights, inheritance rights, divorce rights, etc. - we deserve the SAME RIGHTS as you straight folks take for granted 24/7. And a humane and caring straight person will say the same and more - and will be out there working on educating others who have erroneous homophobic delusions.
"Onwards & Upwards" with LGBTQ EQUALITY & MORE.
Geoffrey Y. Do you even speak english? I haven't seen the word 'human' used incorrectly that many times since people were discussing John McCain's facial expressions. I guess since writing basic sentences is such a challenge for you, I'll give you a pass for not having any idea about adoption and any of the advances we've made in genetics and IVF in the past couple of decades.
This type of “marriage” cannot and will not extend human life. In fact, no one can choose parents... Unless human is too smart and “open minded” , perhaps, the popular words would be ”to be creative”. Human is in the process destroy themselves in a “democrat” way. Eventually it destroys their life existence. If that is the destiny, let’s wait for it happens.
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