Not sure if anyone has picked up on this yet but a hard fought battle was won yesterday when the Illinois State Senate voted 30-27-1 to pass SB3186 which added sexual orentation to the state nondiscrimination code.
More below the fold about Illinois State University College Democrats successful lobbying day!
Yesterday myself and 10 other Illinois State University College Democrats went down to Springfield, our state capital, and helped Sen. Obama open his new office and chatted it up with Sen. Durbin and hundreds of local and state Democrats. U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood(R-Peroia) was even there showing Obama's widespread appeal.
After that we heard that the sponsor of the bill was going to call the bill for a vote so we headed to the state capital to see who we could talk to in the State Senate that would make a differnece. Three of our members were from the small town of Carlinville, pop. a little more than 5,000, where Sen. DeMuzio is from who had taken over her husband's seat after he died. A staunch Catholic and a typical down state Democrat, she was against it but after we talked to her about it and offered my life story, (my parents are gay and have been together for over 31 years while two girls in the group were from the area and are partners), she said she would think about it before the vote. Turns out she was one of 4 previous detractors who ended up supporting the bill!
Now it has to go back to the State House, where it has passed by wide margins in years past, and then to the Gov.'s desk for his support which he said he would give. Illinois now joins 14 other states that have banned discrimination on the books against the GLBT community. Here is a link to a story about the exciting developments
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0501110468jan11,1,217013.story?coll=chi-news-hed.
The conservatives are all up in arms and even more pissed at the three Republians who supported it. Their anger is best summed up by this artile from the Illinois Leader, a conservative on-line publication, "Gays Rule the Day in Springfield,"
http://illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=21916.
Bastardly conservative Sen. Roskam, from the district next to mine at home had plenty to say spewing hate and bull shit yet again;
"Floor debate on the highly contentious issue took a mere 15 minutes, with Republican opponents charging that the bill's passage would lead Illinois down the same path as Massachusetts, eventually resulting in same-sex marriages.
"Your vote is a much, much, much bigger agenda than (human rights)," warned Sen. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton.
However, the Rev. Robert Vanden Bosch of the Concerned Christian Americans told members of the House Judiciary Committee the proposal would lead to such behavior as cross-dressers using public bathrooms of the opposite sex.
"While there's many times that people like I are called intolerant, we're called bigots, the reality of it is that there are firm religious convictions that we hold," Vanden Bosch said."
Anyway, our group considers this one of our most successful efforts since many of us came from areas where there were on the fence supporters and we lobbied hard. Visit our website if you want to learn more about us, http://www.isudems.pabn.org/. It is a good day to live in a blue state indeed!