Take a stand on same-sex unions

Last week's California Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage in that state has received a lot of attention here in Illinois. Look at our Web site, for instance, and you'll see it had among the highest number of comments of any story for several days running.

Daily Herald Political Editor Dave Beery reported Saturday that advocates on both sides of the gay marriage debate in Illinois see the California ruling as a spur to deal with the issue head-on.

We couldn't agree more. And we urge, as we have in the past, that the Legislature take up the issue and legalize civil unions for gays, thus allowing gay couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.

While California's high court stated that the state has no legal grounds on which to bar same-sex marriage and said civil unions wasn't enough to grant full civil rights, we side with those who say civil unions will end discrimination against gay partners and is more politically viable in this state.

State Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat, introduced a bill a year ago providing for civil unions but has not called it for a vote because he's a few votes short. He thinks he might be able to get it done by the end of the year. We think those legislators on the fence need to take some time to truly understand the issues and get off that fence now.

We especially urge our suburban legislators -- Democrat and Republican alike -- to understand that many, many gays live in their districts. Many, many parents of gays live in their districts. And many, many straight men and women support civil unions as well. To assure your legislator understands, contact them.

Camilla Taylor, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal in Chicago, said much the same thing to Beery: "Regular citizens will have to step up to the plate" and let their feelings be known.

"In Illinois, we're literally right in the middle of the country (politically)," said Rick Garcia of Equality Illinois at a recent legal seminar on gay issues as reported by Chicago Free Press. "But we're not Alabama or Florida either. Look at all the states around us. Many have or will have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. (But) our legislature knows that it cannot put discrimination into the constitution."

We hope so. We are strongly opposed to any efforts to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriages. They are not legal now in Illinois and such a ban could thwart even civil unions. That's not acceptable, in our view.

In Michigan, where a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was passed, its Supreme Court ruled that meant that partner benefits like health insurance could not be granted to state workers. Our state did the right thing in 2005 when the General Assembly passed and Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a gay rights bill banning sexual-orientation discrimination in such things as housing and employment.

But the discrimination against gay partners in a committed, loving relationship continues. We hope the latest ruling is the one to effect change in Illinois. It needs to change through the legislative process, not the courts, not the Constitution. It's time.

In fact, it's long overdue.