Illinois is now one step closer to becoming the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Marriage Equality Bill passed in both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and Governor Pat Quinn has said that he will sign the bill by the end of the month, the Huffington Post reported.
The bill passed with 61 votes in the House, just one more than the minimum needed to keep it from going back to Senate. “At the end of the day, what this bill is about is love, it’s about family, it’s about commitment,” Rep. Greg Harris, who voted in support of the bill, said.
This major milestone for same-sex couples will affect people throughout the state. Saida Bonifield, assistant director of the LGBT Resource Center at UIUC, hopes that the positive discussion of same-sex couples will impact our campus. “I think, in general, the LGBT Resource Center will be legitimized by things like this,” she said.
The LGBT Resource Center, which just celebrated its 20th Anniversary, is a safe space where students can come to hang out, voice feelings or concerns and receive help they might be seeking. The Resource Center hosts events and supports six LGBT-related RSOs on campus.
Bills like the marriage equality one are exciting for organizations like this, since they are the voices advocating for change like this. “We’re the ones in the trenches,” Bonifield said. “So, those are our colleagues out there doing the work. We’re very proud.”
While marriage equality is clearly a huge accomplishment, there is still more work to be done, especially for LGBT students on our campus. According to Bonifield, LGBT students face many obstacles that do not even concern marriage equality. Some have lost financial aid because their parents choose not to support them after they’ve come out. Transgender students are denied basic resources such as a bathroom to use on campus. And still, many LGBT students feel as though they have no one to talk to.
Youth all over the state are facing problems like these. According to UCAN, an organization dedicated to helping young people who have faced trauma, 20-40 percent of homeless youth in Illinois identify as LGBT. Measures are being taken to help these people, showing that marriage equality is not the end of the fight for civil rights and the LGBT community.
The hope is that the positive press coverage that the LGBT community is currently receiving in our state will trickle down to Champaign, and affect change right here in the C-U. “If anything, this [bill] will affect a positive climate change here,” Bonifield said.
According to Gov. Pat Quinn, the passage of this bill “put our state on the right side of history.” The sate-wide support of these relationships can only mean good things for the LGBT community at UIUC.
On Saturday, Hawaii became the 16th state to legalize same-sex marriage, which makes two states to do so in one week. As more politicians continue to make the decision to vote for same-sex marriage, the rest of America is able to witness history in the making.
Photo Cred:
Legalize Gay: http://www.advocate.com/node/321839
IUFM: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/…
All other photos: The LGBT Resource Center