A same-sex marriage activist said last Monday the state legislature has another chance to consider a proposed law that would allow gay marriage during the veto session this month.
Charlie Rice-Minoso, field associate for Marriage Equality in Illinois, said the proposed law could win approval in October if there is enough effort by Chicagoans to convince lawmakers from downstate Illinois to vote for it.
“Everyone assumes it’s going to happen,” said Rice-Minoso.
The Illinois Senate passed a bill that would legalize gay marriage on Valentine’s Day, but the House of Representatives has not passed it.
The bill, the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, will be introduced in the state House during the upcoming legislative veto session, Oct. 22, through Nov. 7. Illinois legalized civil unions in 2011, but same-sex marriage supporters believe the unions do not go far enough to protect the rights of gay couples, said Rice-Minoso, because civil unions do not provide 1,138 federal rights that can be gained only through marriage.
Many Chicagoans favor same-sex marriage, while voters in other parts of Illinois are more conservative and oppose it, he said, adding that supporters of same-sex marriage were “heartbroken” the bill has not yet passed.
Marriage equality also has many allies, such as elected officials, major corporations, Latino community leaders and African-American community leaders, he said, but there are also opponents to the law, including the Illinois Family Institute and Cardinal Francis George.
Laurie Higgins, a cultural analyst for the institute, said gay marriage “is another way of changing the definition of marriage and changing the cultural understanding.”
Legalizing gay marriage will mislead society and encourage people to accept “plural unions” or polygamy, she said.
“This is more radical than polygamy,” she added during a phone interview last Monday.
Higgins said marriage is a union between one man and one woman that the government merely recognizes. “We do not create marriage out of whole cloth,” she said.
While many have decided which side of the debate they’re on, Rice-Minoso said about 20 percent of Illinois residents are still undecided on the issue.
He said these are the voters same-sex marriage advocates should reach out to. The goal is to encourage voters to urge their representatives to back the bill, he added.
Rice-Minoso said his Marriage Equality group has 20 field members targeting the key districts where representatives have not made the decision whether they will support the marriage bill.
“We have to pass the whole House of Representatives – with 118 people, those are a lot more people.”