Will Ill. Legalize Gay Marriage Before Legislature Adjourns? : NPR

Contents:

• SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BEME LEGAL 6 YEARS AGO ILLOIS. SCE THEN, NEARLY 15,000 GAY UPL HAVE WED COOK COUNTY.
• GAY MARRIAGE
• ILLOIS ERNOR SIGNS CIVIL-UNNS BILL – IS GAY MARRIAGE NEXT?
• ILLOIS HOE APPROV BILL PAVG WAY FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• ILLOIS BE THE 16TH STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• WILL ILL. LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE BEFORE LEGISLATURE ADJOURNS?

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BEME LEGAL 6 YEARS AGO ILLOIS. SCE THEN, NEARLY 15,000 GAY UPL HAVE WED COOK COUNTY.

Greg Harris, a primary sponsor of the bill who is openly gay, appld activists and advot who lobbied for the legislatn. Many of those state bans also face legal challeng, wh nearly 30 lawsus filed across the untry after two Supreme Court cisns the summer that favored gay marriage rights. ': Gay upl exile return to Ameri post-DOMA cisnSame-sex marriage supporters cheer 'Crella moment'; opponents vow to fight onRights wh reach: For some gay upl, marriage is mere away -- but that's still too farDaniel Ark, Staff Wrer, NBC News.

”Gay and lbian upl won the right to marry Illois when former Gov.

Illois was the first state the Midwt to allow gay marriage through legislative actn, Qun said. Iowa legalized gay marriage 2009 when s Supreme Court overturned a state ban. We're here to help wh life's everyday qutnsSame-sex upl and adoptnIn 2003, Massachetts beme the first state to allow same-sex upl to adopt children, acrdg to the Boston Globe — but the journey to natnal adoptn equaly was far om 2016, a Feral District Court void a law Mississippi which prevented gay upl om adoptg children, acrdg to the Washgton Post.

GAY MARRIAGE

Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups. Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years.

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch. Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs.

ILLOIS ERNOR SIGNS CIVIL-UNNS BILL – IS GAY MARRIAGE NEXT?

That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v. The state fally troduced the untry to gay marriage (m the feral benefs) when began issug same-sex marriage licens on May 17, that year, the U.

Bh—that would outlaw gay marriage across the untry. 2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage. Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire.

Domtic Partnerships Throughout the and the begng of the next, California equently ma headl for seawg on the gay marriage state was the first to pass a domtic partnership statute 1999, and legislators tried to pass a same-sex marriage bill 2005 and 2007. Perry legalized same-sex marriage early 2010s ntued the state-level battl over gay marriage that fed the precedg , wh at least one notable event. For the first time the untry’s history, voters (rather than judg or legislators) Mae, Maryland, and Washgton approved Constutnal amendments permtg same-sex marriage marriage also beme a feral issue 2010, Massachetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, found Sectn 3 of DOMA—the part of the 1996 law that fed marriage as a unn between one man and one woman—to be unnstutnal.

ILLOIS HOE APPROV BILL PAVG WAY FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Wdsor, nservative Jtice Anthony Kennedy sid wh Jtic Ruth Bar Gsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan favor of same-sex marriage rights, ultimately makg gay marriage legal across the natn June this time, was still outlawed only 13 stat, and more than 20 other untri had already legalized gay marriage, startg wh the Netherlands December 2000. Illois beme the sixth state the natn to legimize civil unns and domtic partnerships Monday wh the signg of a bill that creat a foothold for gettg gay marriage passed the state. In some s, the tablishment of legal civil unns has paved the way for gay marriage to follow.

In Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, for example, gay marriage followed the legalizatn of civil unns. But wh only six stat sanctng civil unns and a further five allowg gay marriage, the sample size is too small to draw a direct le om civil unns to gay marriage, says John D’Elo, an expert on sexualy and public policy at the Universy of Illois at Chigo.

“One n say there is a precent movg step by step, but the tth of the matter is gay marriage exists too few plac right now to really know if ’s gog to happen, ” he says. Greg Harris (D), the measure's Hoe sponsor who is openly gay, says public support was ccial to the bill’s passage. ” Harris add that "there was still work to do" to eventually pass gay marriage Illois, but he believed would happen the future.

ILLOIS BE THE 16TH STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

Wh the feral 1996 Defense of Marriage act fg marriage as a pact between a man and a woman, gay marriage laws have been refed at the state level sce, creatg a patchwork of legislatn. C., are the only stat or feral jurisdictns to allow gay marriage. Several challeng to the Defense of Marriage Act seek to remove lims that ntrol the ways which stat regnize one another's marriage laws, says Sarah Warbelow, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, a lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) civil-rights anizatn more stat pass some form of partnership legislatn, the US Supreme Court might step to create uniformy, jt as did 2003 a Texas se that effectively help repeal all state sodomy laws after years of dividual state lgs, says Profsor D'Elo.

Illois Governor Pat Qun sat at Lln's sk as he signed the state's gay marriage bill to law on Wednday, makg the state the 16th the natn to legalize same-sex marriage. Illois Governor Pat Qun sat at Lln's sk as he signed the state's gay marriage bill to law on Wednday afternoon, makg the state the 16th the natn to legalize same-sex marriage.

WILL ILL. LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE BEFORE LEGISLATURE ADJOURNS?

And while wnsg the legalizatn of gay marriage a new state is more and more mon the days, Illois still went all out for s hour-long bill signg ceremony, wh speech, choirs, and a backdrop of repeatg natnal, state, and rabow flags. Illois was one of two stat to legalize gay marriage November. SOURCE: “WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS: AMERICA, EQUALITY, AND GAY PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO MARRY, ” BY EVAN WOLFSON (2004).

Activists rally support of gay marriage on March 25 Chigo. The group Illois Un for Marriage — a aln formed by the ACLU, Lambda Legal and the LGBT rights group Equaly Illois, among others — has ed Twter, Facebook and other social media, as well as old-fashned phone banks every night this week, a fal ph to get the gay-marriage bill passed. " In other words, they are tryg to get gay-marriage supporters who live key districts to light up the phon the offic of lawmakers who might still be stg on the fence.

A Foc On Black Voters Opponents of the gay-marriage bill are mountg a siar effort to feat , focg heavily on the Ain-Amerin muny. Jam Meeks, who heads one of Chigo's biggt megachurch, Salem Baptist, has been featured robolls opposg the gay-marriage bill.