Tomorrow's the big day in Illinois: marriage equality will be voted on in the State Senate

Tomorrow, the Illinois State Senate will vote to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill in question is IL SB 10, known as the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. Give thanks to Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, and Illinois Unites For Marriage for leading the state down the path to making the Land of Lincoln the 10th state to legalize marriage equality.

Illinois Republican Party Chair Pat Brady supports IL SB10, which has led to a huge backlash from the social conservative wing of the ILGOP over this issue-- enough for calls to step down. He has stood his ground thus far.

On the anti-marriage equality side: Next Wednesday, the far-right hate group Illinois Family Institute (IFI) is organizing "Defend Marriage Lobby  Day," or really "Defend Homophobia Day."

Details of tomorrow's vote on HuffPo:

The Illinois Senate on Thursday is expected to advance a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to a vote in the state House of Representatives, the last remaining obstacle to marriage equality in the land of Lincoln. 

The historic vote could come as early as 11 a.m. Thursday, according to the Windy City Times, and marriage equality proponents are very confident in their odds. 

The state House of Representatives is considered to be more conservative than the state Senate and those opposed to the bill are also ramping up their efforts. Downstate, Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki issued a screed urging that Catholics who "propose or promote the legal establishment of marriage as somethingother than the union of one man and one woman harm the common good of society."
If Illinois moves to legalize same-sex marriage, it will become the tenth marriage equality U.S. state. The state has had civil unions available for same-sex couples since June 2011.

I hope you call or email your legislators to vote YES on IL SB10. We need to pray that this bill gets passed through both the Senate and the House, and off to Gov. Pat Quinn's desk for signing the bill into law.


My editorial in the 01.30.2013 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat in support of same-sex marriage:

With the pending legalization of same-sex marriage coming to the Land of Lincoln via the Illinois General Assembly, let’s remember some facts:

•  Same-sex marriage legalization benefits the economy.

• Marriage is between two human adults, whether it is between a man and a woman, woman and woman, or man and man.

• It will not lead to people marrying their cats, dogs, turtles, computers or any other non-human(s).

• Unlike the current civil unions law, same-sex couples will have full benefits and rights.

• Despite the fearmongering from the Illinois Family Institute and other religious right conservative interest groups, religious freedoms will not be weakened if this bill passes.

I think it’s long past time to make Illinois the tenth state to legalize same-sex marriage 

.
Justin Gibson
Granite City

Another letter by me in the 02.16.2012 edition of the BND in support of SSM:

Next comes gay marriage 

With recent news reports saying that Illinois will possibly get full marriage equality legalized, I hope more good things happen to our state.
We got civil unions passed more than a year ago (thanks to the miraculous re-election of Gov. Pat Quinn), but this is a long overdue critical next step for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning rights.
The religious right and their far-right homophobic sympathizers such as the Illinois Family Institute and National Organization for Marriage will try to derail it at all costs, but in the end, it will pass for the good of the citizens. 

Justin Gibson
Granite City

Twitter/Instagram hashtags in support of IL SB10: #IL4M, #ILove, #ILequality, #ILSB10