Illinois introduces marriage equality bill

Representatives Greg Harris, Deb Mell, and Kelly Cassidy filed a marriage equality bill in the Illinois General Assembly this afternoon. Said Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov, "We commend these leaders for taking yet another step towards full equality for lesbian and gay families in Illinois, and we are grateful to them for their leadership.  This is just the beginning: The road to marriage equality is sure to be long, but it is one that we must travel together."

Cherkasov notes that civil unions have been an incomplete advancement in the march toward full equality and fall short of marriage on several fronts, noting that Illinois couples have experienced numerous problems: "...A pharmacist who denied prescription pick-up to the patient's civil union partner didn't think it's the same thing as marriage. A coroner who refused to issue a death certificate to a civil union partner's survivor did not think that civil unions are the same as marriage. Tax preparers, estate planners, employers and employees do not think that civil unions are the same as marriage."

The battle that led to the passage of civil unions in Illinois in 2011 was long and contentious and that will likely be the same for marriage equality, but gay-rights advocates scored a huge victory yesterday when California's 9th Circuit Court of appeals agreed with Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot initiative that stripped same-sex couples in California of the right to marry, is unconstitutional.