President Obama again calls on Illinois to pass marriage equality
May 30, 2013
By Scottie Thomaston
The Illinois General Assembly adjourns tomorrow, leaving the state house with only the next two days to pass the marriage equality bill. The state senate passed the bill on Valentine’s Day and since then, legislators have been wrangling privately over the vote: 60 votes are required for passage, and it’s expected to be close, if the vote is called before the session’s end. High profile Democrats have weighed in over the course of the past few months, including President Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
At a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fund raiser, Buzzfeed reports, President Obama reiterated his message that the bill should be passed:
With two days left in the Illinois legislative session, President Obama reiterated his support for a marriage equality bill there, telling attendees at a fundraising dinner in Chicago Wednesday night that passage of the bill is “the right thing to do.”
“Here in Illinois, we’ve got a vote on same-sex marriage that’s going to be coming up in the state legislature. And I just want to say for the record it’s something that I deeply support,” Obama said at the event held to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Another report notes that President Obama is a key ally supporting marriage equality in the state, as a former state and then U.S. Senator in Illinois. As of this writing, there are still a significant number of undecideds on the bill. A few have announced their intentions, but it’s not clear how the rest will vote if the bill is called. Illinois would be the 13th state to allow same-sex couples to marry, and as EqualityOnTrial has written, it is one of the last states where legislative action is possible, since most of the remaining ones have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. Those would need to be placed on the ballot in a future election.
7 Comments
1.
CARMEN | January 3, 2014 at 12:46 am
With only ten days remaining in the legislative session, time is running short to call the marriage bill for a vote. Since January, advocates with Illinois Unites for Marriage have been working hard to secure the public support necessary to move the bill. Field organizers and volunteers have had over 16,000 conversations with voters, sent nearly 70,000 emails to legislators and delivered almost 12,000 postcards of support to legislative offices.
2.
HATTIE | January 9, 2014 at 9:21 pm
here were probably some representatives that were willing to vote yes if the necessary vote 8 will ask a federal trial court judge for an injunction until they decide if the ruling applies to the whole state. As much as I want it don't count on prop 8 falling anytime soon. thanks for it
3.
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7.
www.buzzfeed.com | June 3, 2014 at 3:37 am
Several variants of democracy exist, but there are two basic forms, both of which concern how the whole body of all eligible citizens executes its will. One form of democracy is direct democracy, in which all eligible citizens have direct and active participation in the political decision making.