April 16th, 2008
In February we reported that Rep. Harris and Sen. Koehler had introduced legislation to bring about civil unions in Illinois. Chicagoist.com gives us an update
There are currently two bills in the General Assembly to recognize civil unions in Illinois, House Bill 1826 and Senate Bill 2436. State Rep. Greg Harris (D Chicago), sponsor of the house bill said that they are close to the 60 votes needed. The sponsor of the Senate bill, David Koehler (D Peoria), says he is waiting to see what happens in the House before going forward.
While I appreciate Rep. Harris’ enthusiasm and hope that his vote count is correct, another recent vote count suggests that this is probably just wishful thinking.
This week another bill that would impact gay couples was before the House
The measure involves pension benefits that surviving spouses can collect after a teacher dies. The change would have allowed gay teachers to give survivor benefits to their partners, just as married couples can.
Although this would have had no financial impact on the state (teachers pay for the policies) the house voted 67 to 43 against this bill.
Now I may be wrong, but to me it seems that there can only be one reason for denying gay teachers the ability to leave their survivor benefits to their partners; and that’s because they are gay. And I’m just not very hopeful that a legislative body that so dislikes gay people that they won’t let them arrange for their own survivor benefits will suddenly champion civil unions.
Meanwhile, anti-gays are moving ahead in their efforts to change their constitution to exclude gay couples entirely.
Protect Marriage Illinois has been circulating petitions to put an advisory referendum on the ballot in Illinois this fall. If they succeed, voters would be asked if the General Assembly should propose an amendment to the state constitution that reads “To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as marriage or similar union for any purpose.”
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Hunter
April 16th, 2008
Please note that a previous petition to put an anti-marriage referendum on the ballot in Illinois failed to get the required number of signatures — examination of the petitions found massive numbers of invalid entries. There’s no reason to think that this round will be any more successful.
And also please note that ballot referendums are advisory only — the Legislature is not required to act on them.
While the vote on the survivor benefits is depressing, it’s as likely to be a reflection of internal politics in Springfield as anything else, and may very well have nothing to do with the level of support for civil unions, although I think we’re facing an uphill fight there. Getting the Legislature to actually function right now seems to be beyond anyone’s ability.
JJ in Chicago
April 16th, 2008
You are correct about the teacher’s bill, it did not pass.
However, I’m not at all concerned about the marriage amendment supported by the right-wing nutcases here in Illinois, like Peter LaBarbera and Dave Smith.
They lost big time last time around– and both organizations are hurting financially. They’re so desperate for money, they’re practically begging for money on their websites.
I was one of many volunteers who verified their petitions last time, and their attempt was downright pathetic. The number of invalid petitions was astounding! Forged signatures, non-existent people with names like Fred Flintstone, etc.
Plus, it’s non-binding and the Illinois General Assembly will not put this on the ballot.
Ephilei
April 29th, 2008
I was at the Capitol lobbying for this a couple weeks ago and things seemed to be going well according to the numbers. However, the challenge is that Chicago, which has half the population of IL, has a history of using its population distrabution to suck money from the rest of the state. That makes it hard to truly cooperate with the southern part of IL in the Bible Belt.
The anti-marriage bill here is truly a joke.
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