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Illinois Governor Signs Civil Union Bill Into Law

01/31/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
It’s official, Illinois has joined the states that have civil unions. Today, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Illinois Religious Freedom and Protection and Civil Union Act. The law was drafted by lawyers with the ACLU of Illinois. The new law gives Illinois couples, including same-sex couples, the right to enter into legal relationships which provide the basic legal protections and responsibilities currently offered only through marriage.

According to John Knight, director of the LGBT Project of the ACLU of Illinois, “Illinois is taking an historic step forward in embracing fairness and extending basic dignity to all couples in our state. We commend Governor Quinn for signing this bill.”

This measure was first introduced in 2007 by state Representative Greg Harris. It passed on 1 December of last year with the Illinois Senate approving the bill 32-24. The bill was pushed through due to the degradation of the Democratic and civil union-friendly majority that was in the state.

Jill Metz, the President of the ACLU of Illinois Board of Directors, stated “This new law reflects the triumph of hope and fairness over distortion and division.”

Between domestic partnerships, civil unions, and marriage equality laws, one third of the United States now recognizes some form of protection for same-sex couples. James Esseks, the Director of the ACLU LGBT Project, stated “Today marks yet another victory in the clear trend line of achieving fairness for families across the country.

Colleen Connell, the executive director of the ACLU, stated:

“We look forward to the day when Illinois joins other states across the nation by making marriage available for all Illinois citizens. This new law suggests that the day of complete fairness for lesbian and gay couples is not far away in the Land of Lincoln.”

The law takes effect on 1 June.

It should be noted that the march towards marriage equality for the entire country depends upon the dissolution of the law known as the Defense of Marriage Act. Should that come down, it then becomes impractical for any state to have anything other than same-sex marriage since same-sex couples could just go to Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa or Washington, DC and simply get married there and return home.

What is more, the Prop 8 case could end up declaring many of these individual DOMA statutes and amendments unconstitutional, and if that were to happen, then it would could open the doors to further litigation and a simple push to end marriage bigotry across the country.

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