Illinois

Illinois, home to over 30,000 same-sex couples, introduced both a marriage equality bill and a civil unions bill in the 2007 legislative session. Although the marriage bill was shelved, state advocates have set the bar at marriage. While incremental steps such as civil unions do provide some protections and responsibilities, ultimately, marriage is the only status which achieves true fairness and equality.

Status: Anti-Marriage Law

Groups Actively Working on Marriage

Equality Illinois: the central statewide organization working to secure, protect and defend equalrights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Illinois

Equal Marriage Illinois-Champaign County: a joint collaborative project of EqualityIllinois, Lambda Legal and the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU ofIllinois, the project seeks to educate about the real harms faced byLGBT families denied the benefit of marriage protections

 

Blog Posts Related to Illinois

Voice for Equality: Roger Ebert

In the August 27, 2010 entry of his Journal in the "Chicago Sun-Times", film critic Roger Ebert makes a case for the freedom to marry by telling a personal story of his mother supporting a lesbian couple in their desire to get married back in the 1970s: "Public opinion is perceived to be shifting on the topic [marriage equality]. It seems odd to me that on this issue, Barack Obama is more conservative than Dick Cheney, George Bush and my mother."

The Chicago Tribune stumbles on freedom to marry data

"Time Out Chicago" writer Novid Parsi comments on a "Chicago Tribune" story about a recent local poll on the freedom to marry. Parsi notes the Tribune story focuses on the fact that there is "a substantial portion of the population that considers same-sex relationships to be morally wrong” even while a much larger percentage of the people surveyed favor marriage equality.

Can the proponents of Proposition 8 appeal Judge Walker’s ruling?

New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard discusses "a bit of chatter on-line" about whether Judge Walker's decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger can be appealed by the Proponents of Proposition 8, who are defendant-intervenors in the case, when the actual named defendants, Gov. Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Brown, and a handful of other state officials, have not signified their intention to appeal.

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Resources Related to Illinois

Geographic Trends Among Same-Sex Couples in the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey

Groundbreaking research showing a huge increase in same-sex couples identifying themselves as "unmarried partners".

Illinois Census Snapshot

Demographic and economic information about same-sex couples and same-sex couples raising children in Illinois.

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