The Illinois house tables marriage equality. We expect the GOP to cater to its anti-gay base. But we put up with a lot of extremely bad policy from the Democrats for the sake of their support on gay equality issues. However, let’s not forgot there is still a significant anti-gay faction in the Democratic party. They can delay the advancement of legal equality, but not block it:
Gay and lesbian couples who want to legally marry in Illinois will have to wait. It’s a delay that was met Friday with tears, anger and confusion. His voice breaking with emotion, state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) tearfully said Friday that he would not call for a vote on his bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the closing hours of the spring legislative session.…
Stubborn resistance within the House Black Caucus, a 20-member bloc of African-American lawmakers who have faced a withering lobbying blitz against the plan from black ministers, has helped keep Harris’ legislation in check, with several House members still undecided.
There are a variety of opinions in the blogosphere about what went wrong. The most forgiving view is that African-American legislators just need more time to explain the issue to their constituents. Others contend not having a vote let these legislators off the hook (many members of the caucus were officially “undecided” but clearly party leaders knew they lacked enough votes in the overwhelmingly Democratic house).
Support for black civil rights by white lawmakers often took courage since it meant angering many of their constituents; we should expect the same from African-American legislators when it comes to support for gay legal equality.
7 Comments for “No Gay Marriage Vote in Illinois”
posted by Mike in Houston on
Yes, Stephen — we expect the GOP to be anti-gay and we expect better than what we got from the Democratic side of the aisle in Illinois.
The difference is that between now and November, there will be considerable pressure put on the wavering Dems and consequences for those that choose not support LGBT equality.
The Illinois GOP, on the other hand, will now be led by anti-equality faction — having ousted Pat Brady chiefly for his support for marriage equality. And of course, crickets from the Glibertarians in the state on this issue as well.
posted by TomJeffersonIII on
We have made some good headway dealing with homophobia within the African American community. Having more openly gay/bi people of color ‘coming out’ and willing to have the important, sometimes painfully slow, conversation within the straight black has been critical.
For better or for the worse, having the anti-prejudice education come from a person of the same race/religion/class as the general audience can help with credibility. If the audience sees you as credible, it can help.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
We expect the GOP to cater to its anti-gay base.
Expect or accept? It makes a difference.
It seems to me that pro-equality conservatives accept the fact that the GOP caters to the conservative Christian base, because pro-equality conservatives haven’t fought back in the last decade, not a bit.
But we put up with a lot of extremely bad policy from the Democrats for the sake of their support on gay equality issues.
You put up with it? Well, maybe, but you certainly don’t do so gracefully, I’ll say that …
If you ever come up with a good word to say for the Democratic Party, I might fall off my chair from surprise.
However, let’s not forgot there is still a significant anti-gay faction in the Democratic party.
The African American churches tend to be evangelical and conservative, both, and the political power structure in Chicago within the African-American church is closely allied with the power base of the African-American churches.
That convergence exists for historic reasons, going back to the Richard J. Daley years, and, although the political power of the churches has lessened in the last decade, African-American pastors have considerable “clout”, as we put it in Chicago, within Chicago.
We are making progress with that constituency, though, and my guess is that marriage equality will prevail in the veto session this fall.
Can you pro-equality conservatives in the Republican Party say the same with respect to your white conservative evangelicals? Are you making progress in turning them? Are you even trying?
posted by ShadowChaser on
RE: Marriage Equality in Illinois
No one expected the path to marriage equality to be easy. We knew that our opponents that would try and thwart us at every turn. The low hanging fruit, so sorry about the pun, has been picked (states like Vermont and Massachusetts). The battle has moved on to the squishy middle — New Jersey and Illinois — where our allies may decide on tactical retreats.
Given my druthers, I would have liked to have seen a roll call vote to see who exactly our friends and enemies are.
By the way, only two Republicans were expected to vote in favor of marriage equality. I keep waiting to see some positive action from gay Republicans who say that they are working from within to change their party. To be honest, I have seen very little change … except from Ken Mehlman who has an awful lot of penance to perform for all the damage he has done toward gay men and lesbians.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
No one expected the path to marriage equality to be easy. We knew that our opponents that would try and thwart us at every turn.
In most states with marriage equality, we lost once or twice on the way to winning equality. It think that early losses are going to be the pattern going forward, too.
I would have liked to have seen a roll call vote to see who exactly our friends and enemies are.
In New York, the unsuccessful 2007 and 2009 votes allowed pro-equality Democrats to identify anti-equality Democrats and work to turn/replace them before the 2011 vote, which was successful. Early, unsuccessful votes in other states had the same effect in those states.
Without having Assembly members on record, pro-equality Democrats in Illinois have been deprived of that opportunity. By failing to call the bill, Speaker Madigan and Representative Harris deprived us of critical information going forward.
It may be that failing to call the vote allowed a number of legislators to “prepare” their districts, as claimed by Representative Harris, paving the way for a successful November vote, but I wouldn’t count on it. The opposition from religious conservatives isn’t going to lessen over the summer.
I keep waiting to see some positive action from gay Republicans who say that they are working from within to change their party.
I think you may be assuming a fact not in evidence. I followed Illinois closely over the last couple of years, and I haven’t seen any evidence of any sustained effort by pro-equality conservatives to turn Republican legislators, even in the collar counties where such efforts would be most likely to succeed.
posted by Houndentenor on
Am I the only one amazed that this is happening at all?
posted by Tom Scharbach@yahoo.com on
When I came of age, pre-Stonewall, it was inconceivable that gays and lesbians would be fighting for marriage equality. Back then, the fight was to keep the cops from bashing us and keeping out of prison. In 1968, for example, another young man and I were questioned for about four hours, kept in jail overnight, threatened with long prison terms and run out of a town in northern Indiana because we were suspected of working on the Gene McCarthy campaign while gay. I still remember sitting in a first-year criminal law class at the University of Chicago Law School, and learned that the state was the first in the nation to de-criminalize sodomy. I didn’t know, and I can remember feeling safe, in my own room at least, for the first time. It was an eye opener.
I think that the first time that I ever thought marriage equality was possible was when the Hawaii Supreme Court issued the Baehr decision in 1993. Although the decision was quickly squashed by constitutional amendment and followed on by DOMA, I saw a path at that point, although I thought that the Hawaii case was a fluke, the product of unusual language in that state’s constitution.
The Massachusetts decision is what finally got me to thinking that marriage equality could and should become a reality, and I haven’t stopped fighting for it since.