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(Springfield, Illinois) Illinois
voters might get a chance to express their opinion on gay marriage this fall.
A conservative action group calling itself Protect
Marriage Illinois on Monday turned in petitions to the Board of Elections to
have a referendum on same-sex marriage placed before voters.
The move came as Gov. Rod Blagojevich was signing
an order extending domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees of the
State of Illinois.
Protect
Marriage Illinois submitted 340-thousand names for the referendum, more than the 283-thousand required, but
opponents predict it may not be enough to get on the ballot.
The signatures must be verified by the board and
false or illegible names would be removed possibly bringing the number below the
threshold.
Even if the measure gets on the November ballot
it is nonbinding. Citizen referenda in Illinois can only prod the
legislature to act.
The measure calls upon
the Illinois lawmakers to enact a constitutional amendment to ban all unions of same-sex
couples including marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.
The organization began collecting signatures
after the legislature last year rejected an attempt to pass an amendment to ban
same-sex marriage. (story)
"It's a shame that we've had to resort to an Advisory Referendum to
tell our legislators specifically to make protecting marriage a top
priority," PMI Project Director David Smith told reporters at a news
conference outside the Board of Elections.
"Nevertheless, it is humbling to see how many people and churches have invested
their time, energy and resources to give us this unprecedented grassroots
victory."
Illinois LGBT civil rights groups say they will
fight the referendum.
"Make no mistake, this is a bald attempt to roll back equal rights progress
in Illinois and make hating gays and other scapegoating respectable in
Illinois politics," said Bob Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Gay
Liberation Network.
Schwartz said the referendum could result in an
increase in hate crimes against gays.
"If the anti-gay measure gets on the ballot, even though it only would be
advisory in nature, campaigns like this are designed to divide communities and whip up
hatred," he said.
"During the year following passage of the
anti-gay Amendment 2 in Colorado, the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of
Colorado reported a 129% increase in anti-LGBT violence compared with the
previous year, a figure corroborated by the Denver Police Department."
But, as Protect
Marriage was touting the referendum, Blagojevich was quietly putting his name to
the domestic partnership declaration.
Illinois becomes the 13th State
to offer such benefits.
"The extension of domestic
partner benefits is not only the fair and just thing to do it
also strengthens Illinois families," said Rick Garcia,
public policy director of Equality Illinois.
"This is all about
fairness and treating our families equally" Garcia said.
"We commend the governor for looking out for all Illinois
families including gay and lesbian ones."
Such benefits are commonplace
in the private sector with most Fortune 500 companies offering
domestic partner benefits to their employees. In Illinois the
County of Cook, the Village of Oak Park, and the cities of
Chicago and Urbana are among the municipalities that offer
such benefits to their gay employees.
In 2005 Illinois became the
15th state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation
and only the fifth state to ban discrimination on the basis of
gender identity.
©365Gay.com 2006
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