Cook County: 6,500 same-sex couples married in first year

More than 6,500 same-sex couples were married in Cook County in the first year of marriage equality, a report released Wednesday by Cook County Clerk David Orr says.

“As we mark the one-year anniversary of marriage equality in Cook County, we celebrate more than the historic day I began issuing licenses to same-sex couples,” Orr said in a statement. “We also celebrate every day that loving couples have been able to share in this most basic right, a right that was denied to so many for too long.”

On Feb. 21, 2014, a federal judge cleared the way for Orr to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples who planned to marry in Cook County — more than three months before marriage equality took effect throughout Illinois.

The 6,508 same-sex couples represent a diversity of race, geography, age, education and profession. Fourteen percent of spouses are Hispanic, 13 percent are African-American and 4 percent are Asian. They live in 113 of 127 suburban Cook County municipalities, range in age from 17 to 93 and more than 80 percent either attended or graduated from college. People 60 years old or older accounted for 1,214 of the newlyweds.

Hundreds of occupations were reported, with the most popular being teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses and members of the U.S. military.

About 66 percent of the licenses were issued to same-sex couples from Chicago and suburbs. However, more than 1,800 couples traveled from other states to marry here.

“While marriage equality has spread like a tidal wave across the country, it needs to be recognized in every state,” Orr said. “Couples from 41 other states — big and small, urban and rural — have applied for licenses in Cook County. And as we've seen recently in Alabama, Arkansas and Kansas, the fight for equality is not yet over.”