Log Cabin Republicans – Illinois is proud of the passage and historic progress that was made today on the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, S. B. 1716, which passed with a vote of 61 to 52. This exceed the necessary 60 votes for passage by 1. Pending expected passage in the Senate and the promised signature by Governor Pat Quinn, this bill will shortly become law in the Land of Lincoln. This bill enables all the protections of marriage, without requiring religious institution participation, under a newly created Civil Union provision in the Illinois Code. This bill could not have made it to the floor without the tenacious and heartfelt work of Illinois Representative Greg R. Harris, who sponsored the bill, who worked tirelessly to bring a strong bipartisan effort among the GLBT community calling, emailing, and visiting Representatives over the past weeks, months, and years.
This bill could also not have passed without bipartisan support among the Illinois House Representatives themselves. We had an unprecedented amount of participation among Log Cabin Republican – Illinois members in lobbying their Representatives. We would like to take a moment to thank our members who helped, and to thank all the Representatives who came together for doing the right thing today, but especially to single out and thank the Republican representatives who helped to pass this historic legislation.
The Republican Representatives who helped secure this victory are:
Suzanne “Suzie” Bassi (District 54, Palatine)
Mark Beaubien (District 52, Wauconda)
William Black (District 104, Danville)
Elizabeth Coulson (District 17, Glenview)
Rosemary Mulligan (District 65, Des Plaines)
Angelo Saviano (District 77, Elmwood Park)
We look forward to working with these Representatives in securing important GLBT rights going forward in Illinois, which will definitely need to continue this spirit of bipartisan effort.
All questions and comments can be directed to Log Cabin Illinois – President Sean Bennett at sean@logcabinillinois.org.
