Gay Marriage In Illinois

Manplay.com has all the information you need to keep you updated with the most recent and interesting info concerning Illinois gay marriage. We start at the past and end with the future. Illinois is a great place to be gay! Finding the person you want to spend your life with is tough, but you know when you find the one. In Illinois, more than 2000 people have found that one person who they are willing to spend their life with, and didn’t even have the option to marry them until now.

Illinois Gay Marriage History

In 1996, same-sex marriage in Illinois was briefly banned, which meant that if any couple came into the country from being married as a gay couple, they could get into a lot of trouble. Same-sex marriage was legalized on November 20th, 2013, and took effect on June 1st 2014. It’s about time!

In 2011, Illinois gave gay couples the option to form civil partnerships with one another. A civil union or partnership gives you every right that you have when you are married, it was considered a loophole for those who wanted desperately to be married to the one they loved. From 2007-2013, the idea of same-sex marriage was tossed around in the court room many times, but was put down because of the constitution and how it said that men and women were to be wed. A few days after Valentine’s Day on February 21st in 2014 in a place called Cook County, which is located in the middle of Illinois, the district court judge ruled that same-sex couples could be married only in this County. On this day, hundreds of same-sex couples ventured into Cook and received their marriage licenses. Eight counties in Illinois were issuing licenses by March 12th. The Counties were; St. Clair, Jackson, Grundy, Macon, McLean, Champaign, Cook and Cass. By April 15th, that number grew to 16. These Counties just couldn’t wait for June. When these eight counties began giving out same-sex marriage licenses, people came from outside of state for one.

On February 5th 2012, the Chicago Mayor announced that he was in favor of same-sex marriage and was working night and day in order to get the bill passed. He was looking forward to the change. On December 29th the same year, President Barack Obama (though not the whole reason same-sex marriage is legal) believed strongly that everyone deserves to be equal and have what everyone else has not based on sexual orientation or even skin color. This helped a lot of peoples’ votes sway towards same-sex marriage, since a lot of people living in the United States look up to their president.

The vote for same-sex marriage had a lot to do with the young people of this generation. After this, the President of the Illinois State Legislature agreed to support and treat all of Illinois’ couples equally. On January 1st, 2013, a letter came from The Archbishop of Chicago saying that same-sex marriage was acting against the common good of society and that the people of this earth have no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible… The following week, Bishop Sally Dyck said that marriage equality is a civil rights issue. On November 5th 2013, Barack Obama tweeted “This is huge… the Illinois House just passed marriage equality." The gay couples in Illinois who had been wanting to marry their loved one for years, rejoiced and celebrated. Obama added that him and his wife Michelle were overjoyed by the news of Illinois passing marriage equality. Bishop Larry D. Trotter went on to say “Regardless of the passage of SB10, we will always believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, yet we will still love the members of the LGBT community."

Illinois Gay Marriage Statistics

In 2004, less than 50% of Illinois was in favor of gay marriage. As the years went by, the percentage grew and grew and is now 65%. 15% of the Illinois population are neutral to gay marriage, and the remaining 20% are against, which means that there is still a lot of hatred towards same-sex couples.

The Current Status Of Illinois Gay Marriage

The current status of gay marriage in Illinois is lukewarm. In neighboring states, statuses are either really great or really terrible, which make Illinois the in-between. A lot of people who live in Illinois have no opinion about same-sex marriage, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it always isn’t a great thing. This statistic means that a lot of people are neutral about the situation when more people are needed onboard! There is a lot of people who are shaken up by the fact that same-sex marriage is now legal in their state, and are still working on trying to end it. This is scary because there have been times in history when situations work themselves backwards, meaning that things became better for a while, and ended. There were many times when same-sex marriage was legal, the government gave out marriage licenses to same-sex couples and then ended it a few months later.

It is scary to think that some people want to end gay marriage in Illinois and put all of this hard work and effort to waste. Walking down the street in Illinois with your partner, holding hands, means that you may get looks and even have people say discriminatory things to you. This isn’t the most warm place to go if you are in a same-sex relationship, partnership or marriage. With that being said, there are still a few cities you can go to get away from all of that hate. There are still companies who cater to strictly same-sex marriages. Not many same-sex couples come from out of state to get married in Illinois unless they are going to certain places in Chicago. There is a lot of religion and history in Illinois which means that there are going to be people who believe in certain things over others, and there isn’t much we can do to change that.

The Future Status Of Illinois Gay Marriage

The future status of Illinois gay marriage is that things could get a lot better, or they could get a lot worse. This state is very up and down when it comes to the topic of same-sex marriage. One minute, everyone wants it and the next, minds are changed. Once the older generations are gone, and the younger and more knowledgable generations replace their ignorant minds, things will begin to ease up. If things go up, there will be a boom of tourism, marriages and even honeymoons. Surprisingly, a lot of couples (straight and gay) go to Chicago for their honeymoon, but if things get even better than they are now, tourism will rise by an estimate of 15%.