Results tagged “gaymarriage”

State Sen. Heather Steans made headlines when she filed the Equal Marriage Act (SB 2468), a bill introducing the topic of gay marriage to the Illinois state senate for the first time, yesterday.

• The B.F. Shaw Printing Co., parent company of the McHenry County-based newspaper Northwest Herald, has sued Cal Skinner Jr. of the McHenry County Blog for damages based on a post Skinner made regarding an alleged loan to the paper, claiming such a loan never happened.
• The City has filed applications for grants that would provide upwards of $106 million meant to hire 400 new police officers. But the grants, good for three years, contain the provision that the officers have to remain on the city payroll for at least one additional year after.
• At yesterday's Pride Parade, Sen. Roland Burris supported civil unions but stopped short of endorsing gay marriage - a view shared by Pres. Barack Obama.

                    

Yesterday's announcement by the California Supreme Court that they would upheld Prop 8 had many gay rights supporters upset, even here in Chicago. Over 600 supporters showed up in spite of the rain for a rally held in front of the Center on Halsted.

Update: The California Supreme Court has voted to uphold the controversial Prop 8. The final vote was 6-1 in favor of upholding. The 18,000 gay and lesbian marriages already recognized will remain legal. Sister site LAist has more coverage. Salon has the full decision here [PDF, all 185 pages of it].

Today in Iowa, the same-sex marriage ban was officially lifted, meaning same-sex couples could apply for marriage licenses. A judge also waived the three-day waiting period for one couple, meaning they could get married today, the state's first same-sex marriage since the ruling. In the wake of these events, the Tribune has published an editorial in favor of civil unions in Illinois, which also coincides with a bill currently before the Illinois General Assembly.

After the recent decision to allow gay marriage in Iowa, there's been cause for optimism amongst supporters in Illinois. Whispers grew a little louder on Monday when Gov. Quinn, speaking at Harper College in Palatine, indicated that a civil union law may not be far away for Illinois. Said Quinn: "I think that's probably where the legislature is headed in the state." With a civil union bill currently in the General Assembly, it's a distinct possibility. However, there are indications that a law allowing gay marriage isn't in the state's near-future. The Times and Democrat - a paper based out of South Carloina, of all places - addressed the issue this week.

Puppy love will be in the Oak Park air this weekend as the town readies to break the world record for simultaneous dog marriages. At the "I Do, Doggone It!" mass canine wedding event going on this Saturday, pet owners hope to match more mutts than ever in holy matrimony. According to the almighty Guinness (book, not beer) the current record set in May 2007 in Littleton, Colorado stands at 178 canine weddings. In an effort to beat this number, a doggy "speed dating" event will take place first, which we imagine will include a lot of quick n' dirty butt sniffing among the dogs and plenty of giggly awkwardness among the owners. A wedding reception, photos ops and games and prizes will follow. Register here.

44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney has introduced an amendment to Chicago’s domestic-partnership ordinance. The ordinance allows for registered domestic partners of city employees to receive benefits. The proposed amendment will modify the language so that any city employee can keep his or her benefits if they legally marry in another jurisdiction. The amendment is just a technical change.

New York Times reporter Monica Davey took an "unscientific survey" of people at the Cultural Center yesterday, asking them questions from the new citizenship test. People didn't do too well. We decided to do our own "unscientific survey" of Chicagoist staffers and friends, and ... wow. Somewhere, our history teachers are in a corner gently weeping. Highlights of our wrongness: 42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of...

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried...

As John Edwards buckles down and tries to keep his presidential bid moving forward while his wife deals with the return of cancer, the two other major Democratic players — Hillary and Barack — have been in the news lately for their stands not just on gay marriage, but the morality of homosexuality in general. After Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune that "homosexual acts between...

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend...

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it a few more times, just for fun? For example, SFist is sure the San Francisco Chronicle wishes they could blame server problems for this error. But this San Francisco man that appeared on "The Daily Show" is, sadly, no glitch in the system. It's going to take more than server problems to get Torontoist into hot pants -- and if the short short post wasn't enough to cause us some server problems of our own, how about those eye gazing parties? It's enough to make them contemplate joining the EU. Our friends at Phillyist are having server problems in places where the sun don't shine, caused perhaps by the great Thai food they ate last week. Well, when you're having server problems of the stinky kind, perhaps it's for the best that you stick to phone sex. We thought about asking Gothamist if this building collapse had our server inside it (thus explaining the server problems, you see) , but then we found out the collapse was part of marriage gone wrong. New York's new lacrosse team needs a name, might we recommend "The Server Problems"? Screw lacrosse, we're playing bocce. Or maybe we'll forgo the sports all together and hit Movable Hype 9.0. But how will we get there when server, we mean, traffic problems go unchecked? Over at Miamist, they debate the benefits of server problem-free Starbucks, over local joints. They also look into crashes of a nonserver problem nature, and a court TV show shot on their beaches. It's no server problem when Austinist's local boys The Mercers get love from Esquire. MySpace is also no stranger to server problems but that's not what has Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott pissed at them. Greg, have a crack cookie. Seattlest found a great way around the server problems, as they took it live with their inaugural trivia night. Perhaps author and radio personality John Moe will be an answer at next week's competition? But if you drive there, better not piss off Keith Gormezano, or server problems like you never imagined might rain down on your poor little car. Bostonist would like to send some some server problems toward rejoicing gay marriage opponents. Sigh. Bostonist seems pretty good at bartering, so maybe they can trade some of those anti-marriage busybodies for some problem-free servers. How we regret the server problems in the language section of our brain that keep us from learning Portuguese! We'd love to read Sampaist, but will have to settle for the visual. This week we see "an advertisement from 1974 talking about the inauguration of the subway in São Paulo (also know as SP). The funny thing about this video is that it is totally nonsense. They mixed the subway with a carnival parade and a party inside the subway car." Our pals down south also posted this music
video released by the band Cansei de Ser Sexy. Scroll down for the English portion of this post. Houstonist refuses to butter up nemesis Ken Lay, who had his official send off to that server problem down below last week. (Jesus wept.) Shanghaiist causes us the enviable server problem of "too many awesome social options", as they rock our world with , and encourage us to fag hag it up. Then there's DJ Jazzy Jeff to see. Whatever we do in Shanghaii, we're bringing this guy. But not her.

While the whole idea of a constitutional ban on gay marriage eludes us, like if people suddenly started clamoring to allow employers to hire or fire people on the basis of age, race or gender, it’s still an issue that people like to talk about (especially right before highly contested elections). So even as we scratch our heads we figure we have to keep the discussion open as long as citizens want to, because that’s sort of part of democracy.

We held off writing anything about gay marriage opponents trying to get a referendum to change the Illinois Constitution to define marriage as a relationship between a woman and a man on the November ballot because we didn’t want to give the haters at Protect Marriage Illinois any attention, and we hoped they would fail in their quest to collect the needed signatures. The good news is that organizers of the referendum fell short in...

We absolutely love it when crazy rich people run for president for no other reason than they are rich and crazy. If you're like us and you're sick and tired of regular rich people running for prez, then you'll be happy to hear we have a new crazy dude running for president right here in Chicago! It's not really whether Gold Coast millionaire John H. Cox would be a great candidate that makes this a...

Good news for burgeoning disciples of Ted Nugent: you can shoot all the damn geese you want this season.

As we’ve mentioned before, State Senator James Meeks is none too happy with Governor Blagojevich, and he is thinking of running for governor as a third-party candidate. Originally he wanted to run because he was disappointed with Blago’s educational funding, but Meeks also thinks Illinois needs a pro-life and anti-gay marriage candidate like himself. Didn’t we already have a couple of candidates like that in the Republican primary? And didn’t they both lose? Meeks has...

This time of year, it seems you’re either on vacation or thinking about it. For those of you lucky enough to be in the first category and lucky enough to Wake Up in the City That Never Sleeps, consider taking in a show at The New York International Fringe Fest. Chicago companies are once again well represented, and you might be the lucky first to see another offbeat hit. Chicago at FringeNYC: The Last Two...

As Pride Weekend gears up, gay news is spewing forth from Chicago faster than Jerry Falwell can yell "boycott!" A few gay briefs: · A recent poll commissioned by Equality Illinois found that while a majority of your neighbors would reject a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, most don't favor marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Even though no amendment is likely to be introduced soon, 67% of those polled would vote no, only...

Watch out! Comedian Margaret Cho is back, hitting Chicago Theater tonight and tomorrow night on her Assassin tour. Last month, Cho told the Windy City Times that Assassin is about the nation's current political struggles, "such as how we are dealing with our administration and how we are dealing with issues like gay marriage." The 36-year-old San Francisco native has been doing stand-up comedy since her early twenties. Her two previous national tours -- Notorious...

If it isn’t a family tradition in your house, Chicagoist recommends heading out to see a movie on Christmas Day. Think of it: two whole hours where everyone in your family has to be quiet or face bodily removal from your immediate vicinity. That’s what we call a win-win situation. Every year, studios take advantage of the need for quiet time in the family and release a few movies on Christmas. This year The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fat Albert, and The Aviator will all see yuletide release dates. Two of the most inessential movies of the year, Meet The Fockers and Phantom of the Opera, will get the jump on the weekend in wide release tomorrow.

Tonight begins Reeling 2004: The 23rd Annual Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival. Presented by Chicago Filmmakers and running through November 11th, Reeling is the 2nd oldest GLBT film fest in the U.S. and prides (pardon the pun) itself on showing a wide variety of films. It even claims that “many consider the festival to be the highlight of their cinematic year.” Oh the modesty! Check their website for ticket info and the full schedule. The opening night film is D.E.B.S., the feature-length version of a short film by Angela Robinson that makes the rounds on Sundance Channel from time to time.

Last night as Mayor Daley was leaving the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame event, a gay activist approached him and asked him to sign a petition. Daley said he'd "sign anything" and scrawled his name. But he didn't read the fine print and didn't realize that the petition demanded that County Clerk David Orr go against state law and "immediately issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples." Just like what happened earlier this year in San Fran.

We�re trying hard here at the Chicagoist offices to be respectful of lots of different political views, but there comes a time when we need to be upfront: Alan Keyes is totally fucking crazy. First, Alan Keyes flipped out at a reporter from the Trib; now, he�s gone the extra mile by calling homosexuality �selfish hedonism.� Well played, Alan. Moderate conservatives eat that shit up. Yes, gay marriage is an important topic this year, and it�s worth debating on lots of levels, but we�re pretty sure that this is over the line.

Watching the Democratic Convention has made Chicagoist want to give a speech. Like, super-badly. And lucky for us, now's our chance. Tonight and tomorrow afternoon, the Bughouse Square Debates will give hippies, hecklers, historians and political types a chance to vent.

Just as Chicagoist was about to give the Red Streak a teensy bit of respect for its coverage yesterday of the Emmett Till case, the Sun-Times�s rag has to go get stupid again with today�s cover story �To Be or Not To Be Outrageously Gay.� Yesterday�s story was informative, sensitive, relevant, and it presented the Till case in, if not a unique, at least an interesting way. Today�s story? �Advocates worry that if the media treat gay marriage the same way they treat gay pride parades�with a focus on the outrageous, such as leather-clad Dykes on Bikes, buttocks-flashing cowboys and drag queens�it could make it worse.�