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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Illinois Civil Unions Bill Passes Senate, Gov. Quinn Will Sign Into Law
First Posted: 12- 1-10 03:23 PM | Updated: 12- 1-10 04:03 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/illinois-civil-unions-bil_2_n_790595.html
Less than 24 hours after it was passed by the Illinois House of
Representatives, the state Senate voted to approve a measure that would
allow gay couples to enter into civil unions.
Governor Pat Quinn has already pledged to sign SB1716, the "Illinois
Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act," which was co-sponsored by
openly gay Rep. Greg Harris.
The measure passed in the Senate by a 32-24-1 vote Wednesday, and the passed
the Illinois House by a 61-52 majority vote on Tuesday.
"This is a legacy vote," Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) said on the Senate
floor. "It makes a statement about the justice for which we stand." The
Chicago Tribune reports that Steans was referencing the civil rights
movement and Martin Luther King, urging colleagues to bend "the moral arc of
justice."
Civil unions would provide legal recognition of gay couples and give them
some of the same benefits automatically available to married couples,
including the right to visit a sick partner in the hospital, disposition of
a deceased loved one's remains and the right to make decisions about a loved
one's medical care.
The Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act will also protect the
rights of religious institutions to define marriage as they choose, and will
be available to any couple, same-sex or opposite-sex, in a committed
relationship who are: 18 years of age or older, not in an existing marriage
or civil union, and are not related. It would take effect July 2011.
Supporters of the bill expected it to pass the state Senate, but many
onlookers were curious about how Sen. James Meeks would vote. Meeks
ultimately voted against the civil unions bill, which is consistent with his
history--but a damaging blow to his mayoral campaign.
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Meeks serves as the pastor of Chicago's Salem Baptist Church, and has made
many offensive statements about homosexuals in the past. In 2007, he was
named one of the "leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement"
by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Since announcing his bid for mayor, he
has tried to cozy up with the gay community--a vocal base of Chicago voters.
The Capitol Fax blog spoke with Meeks before Wednesday's vote:
Sen. James Meeks said this morning that he intends to vote "No" on the
civil unions bill when it comes up for a vote today.
This isn't much of a surprise since Meeks' record hasn't exactly been
pro-gay. But there had been some speculation that he might change his mind
now that he's running for mayor of Chicago. But Meeks said if he voted for
the bill he'd be deemed a flip-flopper who was pandering for votes ahead of
the mayoral election and he planned to stick to his principles.
Meeks, a Democrat, told reporters after the vote that he believes that
marriage should be between a man and a woman--even though the vote wasn't
actually on gay marriage.
Many lawmakers took to Twitter to congratulate Rep. Greg Harris on victory.
The openly gay Harris co-sponsored the bill and worked tirelessly for its
passage.
"We have a chance today to make Illinois a more fair state, a more just
state, and a state which treats all of its citizens equally under the law,"
Harris said on the House floor Tuesday. "We have a chance here, as leaders
have had in previous generations, to correct injustice and to move us down
the path toward liberty."
While most debate on the Senate floor was in support of the bill, some
opponents stood to voice their opposition to it.
"Why civil unions now?" Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) asked, according to the
Chicago Tribune. ". . .We are the incompetence[sic] laughing stock of
government mismanagement and misplaced priorities, and our one-party (
Democratic) leadership spends our time on homosexual civil unions."
On Tuesday, Republicam Rep. Ron Stephens blamed "open homosexuality" for the
fall of Rome, implying that civil unions would lead to the decline in
American civilization. (Video here.)
Gov. Quinn scheduled a Wednesday afternoon press conference to discuss the
civil unions bill.
Check out the Senate roll call here and the House roll call here. |
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