Illinois General Assembly Passes Big Gay Bill

By Sam Bakken in News on Jan 11, 2005 8:57PM

This morning the Illinois House passed an amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act (the Senate passed it yesterday) banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in matters of employment, housing, public accommodations (restaurants, hotels, etc.) or credit. The Senate passed the bill with a 30-27 vote and the house passed it 65-51.

Activists have been trying to get a bill passed adding "sexual orientation' to the Human Rights Act for decades and the House passed it twice in the last 12 years, but it stopped short in the Senate. The amendment just barely made the deadline as the new legislature will be sworn-in tomorrow and it would have died if it wasn't passed before then.

Though he hasn't yet said it himself, Blago will sign the bill and made a number of calls yesterday to lawmakers encouraging them to get it passed.

Opponents of the amendment claimed it wasn't about discrimination (though it's pretty clear in the text that it is), but about changing Illinois' standards of acceptable behavior. OH NO! NOT A MORE ACCEPTING SOCIETY! OUR FAVORITE ACTIVITY IS JUDGING PEOPLE ARBITRARILY RATHER THAN BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER! Some critics also feared it would allow cross-dressers to use their opposite sex's bathrooms. FUCKING GROW UP!

As Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie said "This bill isn't about cross-dressing, it isn't about animals. It's not about anything except basic human rights for the citizens of Illinois." Uhm...what about animals? Oh, oh, oh, all gay people, and no heterosexual people, have sex with animals. That's right.

Don't worry. The bill doesn't give the gays permission to convince America's children to "choose" homosexuality or to rape you. Or, (GOD FORBID!) FORM COMMITTED RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONE OTHER! Wouldn't that just be TERRIBLE!

Expect a visit soon from dipshit Rev. Fred Phelps and his ever-entertaining "God Hates Fags" crew.