Justin's Political Corner

The Illinois Senate has already approved same-sex marriage, and there is a chance next week of a showdown vote in the House in Springfield. But by most accounts, supporters remain a few votes shy of the 60 needed for passage.

“It’s very close,” Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) told me by phone. She sponsored the bill in the Senate that passed with bipartisan support.

In the House, state Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Chicago), a Roman Catholic, told me that though he’s on the fence, the amendments attached to the Senate bill that protect religious institutions from being forced to recognize same sex marriage helped its passage. And on those grounds, he said, “It was much more ready to go over to the House.”

State Rep. LaShawn Ford, also a Catholic Democrat from Chicago, is similarly on the fence but says he is open to the possibility of voting for it. But Ford expresses sensitivity to the Austin community that dominates his district.

“Most of our communities are filled with churches on every corner and … we have built relationships with those ministers and pastors. And want to continue to work … so they realize that one vote will not destroy our relationship,” he told me.

Ford, who says members of his own family are gay, sees this as a matter of human rights.

As the House wrestles, the conservative wing of the state Republican Party on Saturday canceled a meeting to dump its chairman, Pat Brady, over the very same issue. Brady publicly supports legalizing same-sex marriage. The conservatives couldn’t muster the votes to get rid of him.

“This is a civil rights issue,” Brady has repeatedly argued.

In the House, Republican leader Tom Cross has made it clear that even if he votes against the bill, he supports the members of his caucus who vote in support of it. Cross and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) have been crucial in mustering support to keep Brady as the chairman of the GOP.

Back in the General Assembly, a vote on the same-sex marriage bill looms large.

To put it in sports terms, as Ernie Banks and his fellow athletes did in a letter posted by Illinois Unites for Marriage, “Any time a player is not treated with fairness and respect, the game is diminished.”

It’s game time for lawmakers in Springfield.

Batter up.

h/t: Chicago Sun-Times 

SPRINGFIELD — Valentine’s Day might wind up being more than just a day of romance for Illinois’ gay and lesbian couples.

Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) wants Feb. 14 to be the day his legislative chamber votes to legalize gay marriages in Illinois.

“I’d like to pass it out of committee next week and pass it on Valentine’s Day,” Cullerton told the Chicago Sun-Times in a meeting Thursday with the newspaper’s Editorial Board.

Cullerton said he believes the legislation, Senate Bill 110, has the necessary 30 votes to pass and move to the House, clearing a major hurdle in making Illinois the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriages.

Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), the bill’s Senate chief sponsor, and Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), the bill’s chief House sponsor, have been working to tweak legislation that surfaced and stalled in January.

The aim is to appease religious organizations worried about being forced to permit gay marriage receptions at a Knights of Columbus hall, for example, or at a church deemed a public gathering place because it is used as a polling place or a venue for community events such as a Weight Watchers meeting.

“I think under the language we’re working on, everyone is a lot more comfortable there’s no threat of a religious place having to open up to a religious ceremony if they don’t want to,” Steans told the Sun-Times.

Meanwhile, on another significant issue in Springfield, Cullerton said he is open to a GOP demand to include judges in his plan to solve Illinois’ $95 billion pension crisis — a bill he said he hopes to have the Senate vote on by late February.

In every pension-reform plan that’s surfaced thus far, the 984 members of the Judges Retirement System of Illinois have been left out because of a constitutional protection against having their salaries be “diminished” and worries judges would block a pension deal on legal grounds.

Yet, the judges’ pension system, like every other state retirement fund, is seriously awash in red ink.

As of last June, it had $1.4 billion more in obligations to current and future retirees than it had cash on hand to pay for them — all the while providing judges with an average $117,564 annual annuity, the most well-heeled pension afforded anyone in Illinois’ five retirement systems.

H/T: Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago, IL — Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has said that the timing is right to approve a bill which seeks to make Illinois the 10th state to legalize gay marriage.

Cullerton, a Democrat from Chicago, made his comments Monday during a speech at the City Club of Chicago.

“We’re getting more support in the public every day,” he said. ”I expect we will call it very early on in the session, if not in the first few weeks.”

Supporters attempted to approve the legislation earlier this month during the General Assembly’s brief lame-duck session.

Senator Heather Steans, the bill’s champion in the Senate, said she is optimistic about the bill’s prospects in the upcoming legislative session, which begins February 5.

h/t: Chicago.gopride.com

The Senate sponsor behind a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois says she hopes to move the bill shortly after the senate returns in early February.

Sen. Heather Steans said that she is currently working on revisions to the bill.

“We are working to address concerns expressed with particular language in the bill, and I expect we will take up the marriage bill sometime soon after our return,” Steans said in a statement.

Lawmakers had reservations about the bill when sponsors tried to move it to a vote in the lame duck session in early January. Chief among them was whether the bill adequately shielded religious institutions from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

Sen. Dale Righter argued in committee that the language of the bill was unclear, leaving most churches open to legal action if they refused to perform gay weddings.

“Most churches with which I’m familiar will not qualify,” he said in the Senate Executive Committee.

Steans said that bill protects religious freedom and that no church will have to solemnize or consecrate a marriage against its beliefs.

Opponents argued that language in the bill was unclear and said they worried that churches that receive government funds or charge money for weddings could be required to perform same-sex unions.

Rep. Greg Harris, house sponsor of the bill, said the bill prevent any church from performing a marriage against their beliefs.

“What we’re working toward is clarifying existing law that protects religious freedom,” he said.

Steans said that the measure takes into account pre-existing anti-discrimination law in the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Unsure of the bill earlier in January, was also Republican Sen. Christine Radogno, who has occasionally been seen as supportive on LGBT issues. She voted “no” on the measure in committee, but expressed openness to supporting it with revisions.

Sponsors reintroduced the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act” into the new General Assembly this January with the language unchanged.

But Steans said that she and sponsors are currently working with religious leaders to address concerns raised in the bill.

Steans did not say what the specific revisions would include.

The Senate heads back into session Feb. 5.

H/T: Windy City Times

Democratic State Sen. Heather Steans said Tuesday a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois will be heard by a Senate committee Wednesday night and a full Senate vote on a bill could come as early as Thursday.

“There is certainly a lot of great momentum,” Steans said. “Thursday is what we are aiming for.”

The bill will be considered by the Senate Executive Committee at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, where Steans expects it to gain approval.

The announcement signals the bill’s chief sponsors — Steans in the Senate and Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) in the House — and other proponents of the bill have gained enough votes to secure its passage in the Senate, as forces on both sides of the issue make their final pushes to lobby lawmakers before the legislature’s lame duck session begins Wednesday.

The bill needs at least 30 votes in the Senate before it can move to the House, where it will need 60 votes to make its way to the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn, who will sign the bill into law and has been lobbying state lawmakers for additional support.

Steans said the “yes” votes needed to pass the bill in the Senate are there if all of the lawmakers make it back to Springfield following the holidays.

In addition, both Steans and Harris said they are close to securing the 60 votes required to pass the bill in the House.

“We certainly want to get to 60 by next week,” Steans said. “We are in striking distance — if not already there.”

Lawmakers have until the end of the 97th General Assembly’s lame duck session — Jan. 9 — to pass the bill through both the Senate and the House, when a new class of legislators are sworn in.

Steans attributes the rapidly increasing support for same-sex marriage among her peers to President Barack Obama’s coming out in support of the bill as well as efforts by civil rights and LGBT rights organizations.

“[Obama’s] coming out in support really helped a lot,” Steans said. “I think it really has made a difference.”

But Harris, Steans and several LGBT rights organizations are asking supporters to contact their local legislators, regardless of their voting record or current stance on gay marriage.

Just hours before Steans announced the bill’s next steps, Chicago Cardinal Francis George issued a pastoral letter to Roman Catholic priests across the state in which he urged them to oppose the bill.

“Civil laws that establish ‘same sex marriage’ create a legal fiction,” George wrote. “The State has no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible.”

George also argued that same-sex marriages violate natural law because gay and lesbian couples cannot procreate.

Along with the local Roman Catholic Church, a coalition of other conservative organizations has formed to combat the growing support for the bill, including the Illinois Family Institute, the Thomas More Society and several religious groups that oppose LGBT rights.

However, a group of over 260 religious and faith leaders from across Illinois signed a letter to state lawmakers urging them to vote in favor of gay and lesbian nuptials because it’s the compassionate, just and fair thing to do.

h/t: Chicago Phoenix

The Illinois marriage equality bill may be considered as early as tomorrow, Windy City Times reports.

The state Senate will be in session Wednesday, and Sen. Heather Stearns is expected to introduce the bill in that chamber this week. “LGBT leaders say that a vote on a bill seeking gay marriage is likely to come sooner rather than later,” the Times reports. Stearns hopes to get the bill voted on quickly so it can then go to the state House, although a report in the Chicago Tribune says she and Rep. Greg Harris, the lead House sponsor, will go for a vote only if they feel assured of passage. Activists from around the state plan to gather tomorrow in Springfield, the capital.

Both chambers have until January 9 to pass the bill in the current legislative session. After that, a new legislature will be seated, meaning advocates will have to restart their lobbying efforts.

Illinois currently offers civil unions to same-sex couples. Gov. Pat Quinn supports marriage equality and would sign the bill. Several other high-profile politicians have thrown their support behind it, including President Obama, who served as an Illinois state and U.S. senator, marking the first time during his presidency that he has become involved in a state-level legislative campaign.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Francis George, head of Chicago’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, today sent a letter to priests in which church members are urged to contact their legislators and ask them to vote against the bill. “Civil laws that establish ‘same sex marriage’ create a legal fiction,” George wrote, according to the Tribune. “The State has no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible.” Priests can choose to share the letter with parishioners.

He noted that the church has a right to its own views on marriage, but under the law no church would be forced to perform any marriage that goes against its beliefs.

h/t: Advocate.com