Illinois House Passes Historic Same Sex Civil Unions Bill; Senate Bill 1716 Now Advances To Senate

The Illinois House passed legislation to allow same-sex civil union in 2011, the vote 61-52 following intense debate on whether Bill 1716 - the "Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act - was akin to legalising gay marriage. According to the Chicago Tribune, Representative Greg Harris, an openly gay Democrat from Chicago, who sponsored the bill, said prior to the historic vote ““We have a chance today to make Illinois a more fair state, a more just state, and a state which treats all of its citizens equally under the law. We have a chance here, as leaders have had in previous generations, to correct injustice and to move us down the path toward liberty." The measure now goes to the Senate, where earlier today, a similar bill passed in committee by a vote of 6-2 along party lines. There, sponsoring Senator David Koehler, of Peoria, dismissed the criticism that the bill was a thinly disguised attempt to advance gay marriage, saying "Marriage has religious connotations that we are not addressing, we are talking about equality under the law of Illinois...This permits certainty for those that are in committed relationships."