GLN permalink 1-3-2013
With recent marriage equality wins this past November in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington State, we finally have the momentum to win the right of same sex couples to marry here in Illinois -- this week or next week!
For those of us who have spent the last several years beating back two state-wide anti-gay referendum attempts, protesting Proposition 8, and demonstrating against anti-gay bigots from Cardinal George to Peter LaBarbera, this is a sweet time indeed!
Or perhaps you never before have participated in a rally. If so, this is a great opportunity for you to begin taking your future into your own hands, and join your fellow Illinoisans in doing what's right!
Either way, we all have an opportunity that is not to be missed -- the chance to push Illinois over the top and join the other states embracing legal equality for same sex couples.
But it is even more than that. This is an opportunity for all of us to win not only the limited gains that statewide marriage equality would entail, we also have an opportunity to influence the national debate about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights.
We can influence the decisions that are going to be made about our lives this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court. With the Court scheduled to hear and possibly rule this June on the biggest group of LGBT rights cases ever, what we do in Illinois this week and next can not only directly improve our own lives, we can influence, for the better, the lives of millions of our fellow LGBTs around the country.
A powerful win for equal marriage rights in Illinois could help force the court, despite its conservative leanings, to see the writing on the wall, and choose not to be seen as an antiquated, bigoted relic.
We can be part of finally winning an important piece of LGBT legal equality in the United States!
Please join a large coalition of organizations for a rally at 12 noon this Saturday, January 5th at the State of Illinois Building (James R. Thompson Center) Plaza, 100 W. Randolph Street (corner of Randolph & Clark Streets), Chicago.