Openly gay Illinois lawmakers are working to bring gay marriage to the Land of Lincoln, the Advocate reports. State Reps. Kelly Cassidy, Greg Harris and Deborah Mell—all Chicago Democrats—introduced the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act Tuesday—as the historic Prop 8 decision came down in California.
State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, lead architect of Illinois’s civil union law
Cassidy, Harris and Mell’s proposed legislation would give same-sex couples the same spousal rights that straight married couples enjoy. Civil unions became legally recognized in Illinois on June 1.
However, Equality Illinois—a GLBT rights group—CEO Bernard Cherkasov believes the civil union is lacking. Cherkasov offered a concrete example of the inequality that remains.
“A pharmacist who denied prescription pickup to the patient’s civil union partner didn’t think it’s the same thing as marriage. A coroner who refused to issue a death certificate to a civil union partner survivor did not think that civil unions are the same as marriage,” he said.
Cherkasov and Civil Rights Agenda Executive Director Anthony Martinez agree that the civil union law was a good first step toward providing gay and lesbian couples rights and benefits. But Martinez stressed “separate is never equal,” in a news release.
“Marriage has always been one of the principal goals for our organization, and we are pleased to finally be able to move forward toward achieving that goal,” he said.
Mell, 43, is the sister-in-law of disgraced and convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. She and her partner, Christin Baker, 36, were married in Iowa in August, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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