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Loading ...Illinois civil union bill heads to House vote
03.06.2009 10:01am EST
(Springfield, Illinois) A bill giving gay couples the right to form civil unions in Illinois is headed to a vote on the House floor after narrowly winning approval in committee.
The House Youth and Family Committee approved the bill 4-3. The closeness of the vote suggests the measure could be in for a rough ride in the House.Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), the bill’s sponsor, believes he has enough votes.
The legislation officially is called the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act and would ” provide eligible same-sex and opposite-sex couples with the same treatment as those in a civil marriage.”
“[T]he current marriage law is discriminatory and harms same-sex couples; and there is no compelling interest or rational basis to deny same-sex couples those benefits,” the bill’s description says.
The bill also makes it clear that no church would be required to perform or recognize same-sex unions.
Two years ago, a civil union bill introduced by Harris died when the session ended and conservative groups already have made it known they will fight the new bill. They’ve worked to push for a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage they hope will make it to the ballot in 2010.
A Mormon bishop in Illinois has called for a massive campaign against civil unions. In an e-mail to members of his church Bishop Chris Church, of the Nauvoo, Illinois urged Mormons to call their local legislators and tell them to oppose the bill.
The e-mail claimed that civil unions would “empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise.” It goes on to also claim that “it will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores.”
The e-mail raised the concerns of national LGBT civil rights groups. The Mormon Church was instrumental in the passage of anti-gay measures in a number of states.
It was heavily involved in the Proposition 8 campaign in California, a voter-based initiative that prohibits same-sex marriage in that state, a similar constitutional amendment in Arizona and the defeat this year of a package of LGBT rights bills in Utah called the Common Ground Initiative.
Earlier this week the LDS Church’s National Public Affairs Office in Salt Lake City issued a statement that said the e-mail was not part of a coordinated effort by the Mormon Church but an isolated act. Still, it did not rule future involvement if the civil union bill appears to gain support in the legislature.
“As is widely known, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage,” the LDS statement said.
We need a bill that states straight people should not be able to get divorced because of the “sanctity” of their marriages. Sad that something so sanctified end up in a 50% divorce rate.
Roymondo. You don’t know the difference between democracy and mob rule. You seem to think that a slender majority can form a lynch mob to trample on the rights of a minority. That being the case, I propose that the majority pass a resolution to have the Mormons (a minority) stripped of all their rights and possessions. How does that sit with you? You are a stupide, homophobic bigot.
@Roymondo: “the CONSTITUTION FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE a.k.a. the majority don’t want it.”
If the majority in the United States want all Mormons summarily executed, then this should be done. That is how your logic works. With enough hysteria and enough hard times, such a vote could come to pass (in any society of the world).
Just check your history books. It can be relatively easy to whip up mass hysteria and hatred against a specific group.
You should also learn from history what the reasons for democracy are. Majority rule is one of the tools of democracy; it is not the be all and end all. If it were, it would not be a system worth having. I suppose you are happy to for the majority to throw out court decisions as they see fit. Did you know that a separation of powers is part and parcel of modern democracy?
Other posters on here are right: you are a bigot and no amount of reason will appeal to you. I will no longer waste my time with you. I will let the law, which is changing, albeit it slowly, deal with you like the criminal you are.
The term “Bishop” in Mormondom is the name for the local leader in charge of one congregation. The congregations are often very small. My current one is about 80. My largest was 600. From the statistical information on the L.D.S. Church newsroom there are 54,424 members currently in Illinois in 129 congregations. That averages to 422 people per congregation. There is no way to determine how many inactive members that represents or how many children which would make them currently non-voters. The number of non-digital members would reduce the number still further. Any way you slice it the number of people the email could reach is very small. Bishops cannot authorize email to be sent to anyone other than their own congregation. As a 7th generation lifetime Mormon who most recently served as the web site administrator in my congregation I am simply astonished the Bishop is authorizing email to ANYBODY. I can’t get anybody to use the system. In frustration, I finally asked to be released from my obligation because the stress was aggravating my health problems. Calling this email a massive effort by the entire Church is pretty farfetched in my opinion.
Conservatives rely on referendums to stop our fight. If California’s Supreme Court of Justice upholds Proposition 8 a new precedent will be set meaning that the people, not the government, would be able to enact laws by popular vote. Maybe we could use this to our advantage. Sadly we would not have gay marriage but we could sponsor a massive campaign and propose that the Catholic and Mormon churches pay taxes nationwide. At least the economic recession would end. Both religions have money and own many properties. They should be sucked dry like everyone else by the IRS.
Roymondo, I respect your right to your beliefs, but what you’ve just posted misrepresents reality. The Mormon church just poured enormous resources into a constitutional amendment that has no effect on marriage other than to rob same-sex couples of the right to participate in it. The church and its allies aren’t fighting for “traditional marriage” but against gay people. Furthermore, it’s the Yes on 8 crowd that just helped to redefine marriage in California by supporting, in the form of a constitutional amendment or revision, a very recent law that limited marriage to a union of a man and a woman for the first time in the state’s history. And again, the Mormon church contributed a large preponderance of the funding for Proposition 8. While it wasn’t the only group involved, there is now good evidence that it was the major player.
If the “vast majority” of citizens were opposed to same-sex marriage as you say, Proposition 8 would have won easily. Instead, it barely sqeaked by, even with an expensive campaign of lies being waged for it. Finally, it really isn’t true that “the people” want same-sex couples to be denied the right to marry. Gays are part of “the people” too, and most gay people don’t want their right to marry taken away any more than you want your right to practice your faith taken away. You’re revealing something about yourself by accidentally arguing as if gay people weren’t people. That “something” probably also explains why you’re willing to harm your own brother. And it has a name: prejudice.
ROYMONDO,
I have asked you questions before and you refuse to answer them. Why? Because your narrow-minded view of the world is wrong and is based on lies, and you really have no answer. So what do you do…you run from one story to the next simply spreading nonsense. You, as a Mormon, believe in a religion that is in direct contradiction to historical facts about the origins of the peoples of the New World, so why should anyone take you seriously? We shouldn’t. Your morals are based on a book that supports slavery, so why should we consider it to be a morally sound guide to life. Again, we shouldn’t. You admitted to having a brother who is gay and you have not accepted him for who he is. You should be ashamed of yourself for causing this man even more suffering. You claim that gay marriage is on the loosing side of history, and again you are wrong. What is happening in CA is a travesty, but it is only one battle. Every time religious bigots like you (and you are a bigot if you support legalizing discrimination against same-sex couples) have tried in MA and CT to stop marriage equality from happening you have FAILED. Here is a novel idea for you: you say you do not same-sex marriage, well don’t marry someone of the same sex. It is that simple. However, do not prevent me from doing what I want to do.
ROYMONDO is telling fibs. From what I can tell, the California Constitution does not refer to smoking at all, and only refers to tobacco when describing how tobacco taxes may be spent or limited.
And I’ll say it again: the only people re-defining marriage are (quite literally) the ones changing constitutions to exclude same-sex marriages, and the ones creating new constructions like “civil unions” and “reciprocal beneficiaries” and “domestic partners”, just because they are bigoted against gay people. Nobody on the same-sex marriage side is claiming marriage should be redefined.
Last, the people of the USA outrank the people of California, and the people of the USA approved the 14th amendment to the US constitution. It’s Equal Protection clause says that things like Prop 8 (And Colorado’s voter-approved Amendment 2 from the 90s) are illegal. Prop 8 is going down, because it’s a violation of US law. It’s just a matter of time. If the haters want to ban same-sex marriage, they will have to do it via the US constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. As we’ve seen, those efforts fail, even with cheerleader in chief Bush trying to push it.
roymondo,
you are a douche bag. Smoking around others can cause health risks to the non-smokers and they shouldn’t have to be forced to participate in something that may harm them. On the other hand, gay marriage doesn’t effect anyone but gay people. If you are straight, you won’t be getting a gay marriage now will you? You don’t have to participate in the marriage and it doesn’t effect the legality of your own marriage (should you choose to get married), so really you have no right to object. So shut the hell up.
I worry about what they are teaching to the children.
I have rubbed elbows with many religons and most have one thing in common. They all sin at some point in time. I don’t know what their thing is always comming into our bedrooms. I have never wanted to go in theirs. They have some kinky ways with them it makes us look innocent. There in lies the problem. Everything they throw at us is only a reflection of them. I got it.
TJNV, Don’t try and act like Mormons are the only ones fighting for traditional marriage. Mormon’s along with the vast majority of “hard working and tax paying citizens” are strongly opposed to re-defining marriage. What the GLBT are doing is viewed by the other side as a degradation of moral values. In this Country the majority rules and even if you don’t like it you deal with it. Example: The constitution in California bans a smoker from lighting up in a restaraunt. Any smoker will tell you that’s bigotry, but guess what? That’s in the CONSTITUTION because the MAJORITY doesn’t like smoking indoors. Likewise, the idea of gay marriage is being erradicated in America because the CONSTITUTION FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE a.k.a. the majority don’t want it. Those fighting for NO on Prop 8 outspent the YES side and you still lost. You’re selling something that we don’t want. Maybe the group pushing for gay-marriage is also running GM.
I wish this civil union bill all the best of Luck. I hope legislators do the fair thing instead of the FEAR thing.
The Mormon Church needs to mind its own business. I really hate how they always use fear of what MIGHT be taught to kids to keep GLBT hard working and tax paying citizens from getting equal treatment under the law. They will take as much as they can. Civil Unions do not equal Marriage but they do not want us to have any rights. Just look what they did in their own state of Utah recently. Perhaps the Bishop was acting on his own, but it is highly likely that is just the spin Church leaders are taking after the Prop H8 backlash.
Tom in Long Beach, Still made at Mormons and others over Prop H8. I Hope our Supreme Court will do their job and protect our minority from the tyranny of the slight majority, Some of whom voted out of fear because of the lying sensationalistic adds on T.V.