Justin's Political Corner

With the end of the Illinois’ spring legislation session just days away, LGBT leaders say that equal marriage legislation has the support needed to pass by month’s end.

Sponsors have until May 31 to pass the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” which would allow all couples, regardless of their gender, to marry. Failing that deadline, the bill’s passage would be delayed for months.

LGBT groups pushing for the bill say they are ready to see it come up for a vote.

“I have absolutely no doubt we’re going to be done with this by May 31,” said Jim Bennett, Midwest regional director for Lambda Legal. “I believe that this bill is going to pass.”

Bennett declined to give a specific vote count, but said that he expected the bill could be called and passed any day.

Rick Garcia, policy advisor for The Civil Rights Agenda, said he thinks the bill has the 60 votes needed for passage in the House.

“I believe we’re there,” said Garcia. “The cake is baked. We’re waiting for the icing.”

The bill passed the Senate on Valentine’s Day. House sponsors have since struggled to pull together enough votes to pass it in the House.

Illinois Unites for Marriage, a coalition of groups working for the bill, has scheduled a community meeting to update supporters on the bill’s progress and share plans surrounding the vote Wednesday evening.

The bill has the backing of major political players in Illinois, including Gov. Pat Quinn, who told Windy City Times that he has met personally with more than a dozen representatives in an attempt to get the bill passed. Quinn has said he will sign the measure into law.

Chief Sponsor Greg Harris has vowed not to call for a vote until the votes are there to pass it.

Steve Brown, a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Madigan, confirmed that Madigan has also met with wavering lawmakers in recent days in an effort to secure the final votes.

“There were conversations with people last week, hoping to persuade some people,” Brown said.

But when the vote comes is in the sponsors’ hands, Brown said.

“That would all be up to Greg Harris,” he said. Brown said he could not give a specific vote count.

Harris could not be reached to comment before press time.

If the bill does not pass by month’s end, sponsors will need to wait until at least until fall to push the legislation. That option, however, is not seen favorably. Representatives hold office for just two years, and campaigns are expected to heat up as the year goes on, making controversial legislation like equal marriage harder to pass with time.

Complicating that option, Garcia pointed out, will be anti-gay efforts to stop the bill. Delays in its passage will give anti-gay organizations and churches time to mobilize opposition. Illinois Family Institute, a staunchly anti-gay group, has already held several rallies throughout the Chicago area against the bill.

The Illinois Unites for Marriage community meeting will be held Wednesday, May 22nd at 5:30 p.m. at the Urban League, first floor conference room, 4510 S. Michigan Ave. That meeting will be cancelled if a vote is expected that day. See windycitytimes.com for up-to-the-minute information.

h/t: Windy City Times

CHICAGO — Gov. Pat Quinn said Illinois lawmakers have a chance to make history on two fronts this month by approving a plan to fix the state’s decades-old pension crisis and legalizing same-sex marriage.

(cross-posted from Daily Kos)

With just days left before the Illinois General Assembly ends its regular session, activists are scrambling to get a gay marriage bill to the finish line.

Supporters have racked up an impressive number of high-profile victories in recent months, including adding three states to the marriage equality column through the ballot box in November – Washington, Maine and Maryland – and an equal number through legislative votes held this month, the latest state being Minnesota. Wedding bells will also soon ring for gay couples in Rhode Island and Delaware.

(Another victory came earlier this year in Colorado, where lawmakers approved a civil unions law, possibly the best outcome for marriage equality supporters until a constitutional amendment is repealed.)

With Democrats in control of both chambers of the General Assembly and Democratic Governor Pat Quinn in support, the move from civil unions to full marriage wasn’t expected to come down to the wire in Illinois. After all, Rep. Greg Harris, the sponsor of the civil unions bill in the House, committed his support for a marriage bill even before the civil unions law took effect in 2011.

The marriage bill already has had one false start. Last year during a brief lame-duck session the bill was added to the agenda in the Senate but never came up for a vote. Its champion in the chamber, Democratic Senator Heather Steans, said that time was the main factor behind the decision to postpone a vote.

Six weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, the Senate approved the measure. A House panel agreed a month later, leaving only one hurdle for the marriage bill to clear.

H/T: OnTopMag.com

Medical marijuana use in Illinois is now in Gov. Pat Quinn’s hands after the state Senate approved legislation.

Lawmakers voted 35-21 Friday to send the measure to Quinn for final approval. Quinn hasn’t signaled whether he will sign it into law.

The proposal allows physicians to prescribe marijuana to patients with specific terminal illnesses or debilitating medical conditions. Cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV are among the 33 illnesses listed in the bill.

h/t: NBC Chicago’s Ward Room

Springfield, IL — The Illinois House has just over two weeks to vote on SB10, or the Religious Freedom and Marriage Act, or the legislation is in danger of dying. If a vote does not take place by May 31, the end of the current session, supporters of the bill will essentially have to start from scratch.

Members of the activist coalition lobbying on behalf of SB10 said they are confident their work has proceeded as far as it can go, but the bill’s supporters in the House say they’re still trying to shore up more support from legislators.

“We’re in a place where we feel we’ve done as much as we can do, said James Bennett, Midwest Regional Director for Lambda Legal, who has been lobbying for the legislation. ”We’ve made phone calls, people have visited—we’re comfortable that we’ve done our part.”

Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois, said he “did not want to imagine” what would happen should the bill be allowed to languish. The Coalition has “done what it’s supposed to do with this, so we would not want to be back to ground zero.”

But Cherkasov said he was confident that Illinois would share in some of the momentum from marriage equality victories the LGBT community has enjoyed in Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota. ”The truth is, those victories came about from momentum contributed from what we are building in Illinois, and our victory will come from momentum from those states—there is national momentum on this issue.”

A vote is unlikely this week—Friday is a “getaway” day for legislators, and major legislation is rarely decided on those days. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) would not disclose the current tally of votes. Unofficial counts have fluctuated since March, but a recent tally had the measure just within the 60 needed number of votes. 

“When it goes up on the board, it will go up with the necessary number of votes,” Harris told ChicagoPride.com Thursday. 

H/T: GoPride.com

Illinois could become the fourth state this month to legalize same-sex marriage. The Minnesota legislature approved it Tuesday, and the governor there is expected to sign it today. 

SB10, or the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, has already passed the Senate, but hasn’t been called for a vote in the House.

The bill’s chief sponsor in the House, Rep. Greg Harris, said he will call the bill when he has the 60 votes needed for passage. He promised that when it is called, it will pass.

When asked if that meant this week, he answered that it will be very soon, and that the number of supporters is climbing.

“We’re very close,” Harris said. “And I think people need to look at what our sister state Minnesota did yesterday, what Rhode Island and Delaware have done. In the last week, they’ve extended equal marriage rights to all citizens, and protected religious freedoms. It’s time for Illinois to step up.”

Many opponents have said their constituents have made it clear that they need to vote no.

“I’ve gotten like 70 phone calls, e-mails, letters, in support of, and over 3,000 against,” Rep. Wayne Rosenthal (R - Litchfield) said. “I’m in a pretty, really, conservative district, and I share those values.

It’s coming before the end of the month!

H/T: WICS.com

In many of the states that have waged marriage equality fights recently, opponents have often coalesced around a coalition consisting of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the state’s Catholic conference, and the state’s “family policy council” affiliate of the Family Research Council. In Illinois, however, these typical players have not united in the same way, seemingly in part because the state social conservative group is the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a hate group in its own right associated with the American Family Association.

IFI’s rhetoric is quite a bit more brazen than what anti-gay groups have used in other states, which may have scared away its would-be allies. 

Today marks three months since the Illinois Senate passed the marriage equality bill, and with only three weeks left for the House to pass it, here’s a look at some of IFI’s rhetoric that is dominating the opposition:

• Today, IFI posted numerous photos from its rally this weekend, including a sign that reads, “The crime against nature will never be equal.”
• Speakers at the rally included ex-gay advocate Linda Jernigan and another hate group leader, Peter LaBarbera, who told the crowd that homosexuality is “unnatural and wrong,” citing HIV rates among men who have sex with men as evidence of “the dangers of homosexuality.”
• In February, IFI’s Laurie Higgins wrote that gay people shouldn’t even be allowed to teach because they’ll put pictures of their partners on their desk that students will see.
• In fact, IFI believes that parents should pull their children from any classroom that attempts to create a safe environment for LGBT students.
• IFI has claimed gays and lesbians already have equality because they can marry the opposite sex like everyone else; same-sex marriage is thus a demand “to be treated specially.”

This extreme rhetoric extends beyond the talking points conservatives have traditionally used in these fights, which tend to focus on supposed protections for children, gender norms, and the institution of marriage. By openly condemning homosexuality as unnatural and curable through therapy — as well as enabling the bullying of LGBT youth — IFI sets itself apart.

H/T: Zack Ford at Think Progress LGBT

With Minnesota looking poised to enact marriage equality early next week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is getting restless. In remarks Thursday, he called for the Illinois House of Representatives to follow the state Senate’s lead and enact marriage equality.

Quinn, who endorsed same-sex marriage last May, has been personally lobbying undecided legislators and says supporters are close to the required 60 votes.

After months of delays, Quinn says it is now “time to vote.” He told reporters “it’s important that Illinois and the House of Representatives get moving… I believe a majority exists to get this bill passed through the House onto my desk so I can sign it into law.”

Recent polling showed 50 percent of Illinois voters in support of marriage equality, compared with just 29 percent in opposition. In addition to Quinn, both of the state’s U.S. Senators — Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican Mark Kirk — have endorsed equal marriage.

A source told the Chicago Phoenix that the bill currently has 58 of the necessary 60 votes for passage. The legislative session ends on May 31.

We’re getting there!

H/T: Josh Israel at Think Progress LGBT

SPRINGFIELD-Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday called on Illinois House members to take action on a same-sex marriage bill that’s been dormant there for more than 80 days, adding that he thinks the votes are there to send the measure to his desk.

“Illinois passing marriage equality into law, I think, sends a great signal to the people of our state and the people of America,” Quinn told reporters after appearing at a ceremony in Springfield honoring firefighters. “So, it’s important that Illinois and the House of Representatives get moving.

“I believe a majority exists to get this bill passed through the House onto my desk so I can sign it into law.”

Since the state Senate sent the bill to the House on a passionate Valentine’s Day vote, the House has taken votes on key issues such as pension reform, concealed carry and medical marijuana. But the full House floor has yet to debate legalizing same-sex marriage in Illinois, an objective at the top of Quinn’s list.

“I think, you know, it’s time to vote,” Quinn said. “We’ve waited now three months, and it’s, I think, plenty of time for people to reflect on it. And now it’s time to pass it.”

I’m hoping this vote occurs ASAP and praying for its passage in the House when it’s time to vote on it.

h/t: Chicago Sun-Times

Which brings us to Illinois. Land of Lincoln and recalcitrant House legislators.

May 8, 2013 (SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) (WLS) — The bill to allow same-sex couples to marry needs 60 votes to the pass the Illinois House. Its sponsor says his roll call of supporters has reached the high 50s.

“We’re now very close and when it comes on the board it will pass,” said Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago).

The Illinois Senate has already passed the legislation. All it will take is for a few more House legislators to enter the 21st century. They’ve now watched as the entire Rhode Island Senate Republican delegation voted in favor of same-sex marriage; they’ve watched Delaware move swiftly and get it done; and soon they will have watched Minnesota vote in a bipartisan manner to pass their marriage equality legislation. Yet Illinois, which many thought would be the first of possibly four states to legalize same-sex marriage, is still teetering on the brink of failure.

When the entire weight of the political structure in Illinois (the President, his former Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago, the Governor, the state’s Attorney General, and both US Senators - one R, one D) are in favor of this legislation we can only stop and wonder: Is something rotten in Denmark (no, they have same-sex marriage) Illinois (beyond the famous dead of Chicago who rise to vote every election day)?

Get with it, Illinois.

H/T: jpmassar at Daily Kos

May 8, 2013 (SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) (WLS) — The bill to allow same-sex couples to marry needs 60 votes to the pass the Illinois House. Its sponsor says his roll call of supporters has reached the high 50s.

“We’re now very close and when it comes on the board it will pass,” said Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago).

The measure to redefine marriage in Illinois to mean between two people as opposed to a man and woman passed the Senate by a comfortable margin on Valentine’s Day.

Supporters predicted a similar result in the house where democrats also hold a super-majority.

But after many African-American churches and Chicago’s Catholic Archdiocese led by Cardinal Francis George stepped up their anti-gay marriage campaigns, house members representing predominantly black districts have publicly denounced the bill.

Harris remained confident he’ll have at least 60 votes by the end of session on May 31.

“This is the land of Abraham Lincoln. We have always supported equality, we’ve always supported fairness. Now is the time to be on the right side of history,” said Harris.

So nearing mid-May, the Marriage Equality bill is still unfinished business. And with only about three weeks left in session, the legislative clock is ticking.

We’re getting closer, but not quite yet.

h/t: ABC 7 Chicago