Progress Illinois

So hopes the sponsor of that legislation, Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago).

His civil unions measure would give same-sex couples in Illinois equal rights and access to benefits. He has previously said he's confident he can garner enough support in the House to pass the bill by the end of the year. Now, in the wake of a California Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, many are wondering whether Illinois could be next state to make national headlines on the issue, as the State Journal-Register reports:

“To have an anchor on each coast (California and Massachusetts) is a very positive step. Now, we need something somewhere near the center. How would Illinois be?” [gay rights advocate Buff] Carmichael said.

It would be OK with state Rep. Greg Harris, the Chicago Democrat sponsoring House Bill 1826 that would legalize civil unions in Illinois.

He said he hopes the California court’s decision “sets a tone” that will bolster support for his bill. [...]

“But I hope my colleagues look at this and say: This is a trend. It’s the right thing to do. It’s what people across the United States want. They want basic fairness and equality,” he said.

Of course, Harris goes on to acknowledge the distinction between civil unions and same-sex marriage. He says of the possibility of legalizing gay marriage in the Prairie State, “I hope one day we’ll reach a broader consensus here in Illinois, but that day is not here yet.”

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Back in March, we noted how a Facebook group created by Lake Forest College sophomore Phil Miatkowski to rally support for Illinois Rep. Greg Harris' (D-Chicago) civil union bill had attracted over 8,000 members. Well, the AP is reporting today that that number has climbed to nearly 9,000:

At first, his site detailed the bill's progress for friends, who began inviting hundreds of other friends.

Within weeks, Miatkowski and students from across the state organized online "rallies" to flood legislators with e-mails, faxes and phone calls. Members also have held petition drives at train stations, written editorials and set up campus events.

The group's efforts made enough of an impression that Illinois lawmakers mentioned it to Harris, sponsor of the civil unions bill. Harris contacted Miatkowski and other student leaders to discuss how to gather more momentum on the bill.

"This is an organic thing. That's the exciting thing about it," Harris said. "There's no way I could talk to 9,000 individuals from every county in this state and get them on board with this. They did this themselves."

Harris' bill would give same-sex couples in Illinois equal rights and access to benefits. It advanced out of committee earlier this year and Harris says he's confident it will pass the full House before the year is over. You can learn more about the measure and the Illinoisans it would affect at CivilUnionsIllinois.org.

The conservative group Protect Marriage Illinois needed to gather about 270,000 signatures by Monday in order to put an advisory referendum on the November 4 ballot to move towards making gay marriage unconstitutional. But The Rockford Register-Star reports that they missed the State Board of Elections deadline.

Cue the trombones.

Protect Marriage Illinois didn't return calls to the Register-Star, so it's not clear how many signatures they did in fact gather. Nonetheless, their failure to pass the necessary threshold calls into question whether the initiative would have passed even if it had made it on the ballot.

Over at his blog, Hiram Wurf has a post up about House Bill 1826 and the grassroots movement that has risen up to support it.

The story begins with a Facebook page, “Students for the Illinois Marriage Equality Bill”, which attracted over 8,000 online members and ultimately the attention of one state legislator:

State Representative Greg Harris, an advocate of Civil Unions recognized that these self-organized, grassroots voices represented an important part of an activist movement to support his House Bill 1826, historic legislation to extend basic legal protections to committed opposite-sex, same-sex and senior couples in Illinois by creating civil unions. Now there is a website.

That website, CivilUnionsIllinois.org, is a helpful clearinghouse for information about the fight for equal domestic partnership rights, and it offers suggestions on how to get involved. For instance, the site provides a ready-made letter that you can send to your representatives in the statehouse, urging them to support HB 1826.

Wurf has also collected some compelling stories about real Illinoisans who would benefit from the passage of this common sense legislation.