Comments on: Illinois Civil Unions Not Looking Very Promising

By: Ephilei

Ephilei — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:10:43 +0000

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.

By: JJ in Chicago

JJ in Chicago — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:13:07 +0000

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.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:07:23 +0000

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.