Marriage Equality Closer to Reality In Illinois After Senate Votes In Favor

Feb 14th, 2013 @ 03:36 pm › Wayne Besen

Great news from Illinois:

The Democratic-led Senate delivered a Valentine’s Day victory to gay and lesbian couples today, passing legislation for the first time that would allow same-sex marriage in Illinois.

The gay marriage measure now goes to the House, where the fight is expected to be tougher. Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

The 34-21-2 Senate vote represents a turnaround of sorts after advocates unsuccessfully sought to push a gay marriage bill through last month’s lame-duck legislative session. Supporters vowed to try again quickly with a new General Assembly that featured even more Democratic seats in both chambers.

Marriage equality in Illinois would be huge, because it would be the second Midwest state to allow gay couples to wed. This would be a significant boost to the fight, as well as include America’s third largest city.

Categories: News
Tags: Chicago gay marraige, Illinois marriage equality passes state Senate

2 Responses

Merréll Barry O'Brian

3 mos, 1 wk ago

This is great news! It will be better news when it’s passed. However, whatever happened to PA and NJ?
KT

3 mos, 1 wk ago

PA is much more conservative than it Northeastern neighbors though there is momentum going now that the state has two openly gay legislators and more and more PA residents are supporting SSM.

NJ is stuck in a quagmire thanks to Chris Christie’s veto. The state Dems and major LGBT rights groups absolutely refuse to put the issue on the ballot. An override veto requires over a dozen Republicans to change their vote on SSM and go against the increasingly popular Christie. Only a court case can help at this point and the current case in the state won’t reach the State Supreme Court for years. NJ should have had SSM in 2009 but the state Dems really dropped the ball then.

Send a Message

2 Responses