Mar 5, 2009 11:28 am US/Central
Civil Unions Bill Advances In State House
Downstate Mormon Church Fights Legislation
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A bill giving gay couples the right to form civil unions in Illinois squeaked through a legislative committee Wednesday.
This was despite a push by a downstate Mormon Church plans to fight the legislation.
The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, or HB 2234, does not legalize same sex marriages. But it would give same-sex couples the same protections and benefits as married couples.
They would have the right to visit their partners in hospitals and make medical decisions, among other things.
A bill on civil unions for same sex couples goes before an Illinois House committee on Thursday,
The legislation was introduced in February by state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago).
It supplants an earlier civil unions bill, HB 1834, which Harris introduced two years ago. That bill passed out of committee, but died at the end of the legislative session due to the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Harris also issued a bill for same sex marriage a few years ago, but later abandoned it.
The current bill has picked up 12 co-sponsors, and is to be discussed Thursday before the Youth and Family Committee.
Meanwhile, a fracas erupted after the publication of
an e-mail published on the Web news site Box Turtle Bulletin, reportedly from an Illinois Mormon Temple and calling for recipients to mobilize against the legislation.
The e-mail, reportedly sent by a member of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple 3rd Ward, claimed in part that the bill would "empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise. It will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores; the current push in Massachusetts is to recognize and legalize all transgender rights," according to Box Turtle Bulletin and other news sources.
A later e-mail from temple Bishop Chris Church posted on Box Turtle Bulletin said while members may take action as they wish, "the church does not take any position in relation to these issues."
Harris told the Chicago Free Press that he had received calls that stemmed from the Nauvoo Mormon Church appeal, but mostly not from constituents. He also told the newspaper that the e-mail's representation of the legislation was "full of errors," and used "exaggeration, distortion and lies."
The Free Press reported that Nauvoo Temple officials said the e-mail did not originate with them.
The Mormon Church is widely considered the main force that led to the approval of Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in California.
The California Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday on lawsuits filed to overturn the ban.
The full Illinois House must now vote on the bill.
Meanwhile, same sex marriage opponents hope to put state constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage on the ballot in 2010.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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