Marriage equality goes into effect in Illinois on June 1, according to the law passed last November. But in Cook County, home of Chicago's large population,
equality starts now, thanks to a ruling from U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman:
“There is no dispute here that the ban on same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and infringes on the plaintiffs’ fundamental right to marry,” the judge wrote in her opinion. “There is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this Court and committed gay and lesbian couples have already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry.”
No appeals are likely, since all of the relevant parts of the government are in favor of marriage equality. People in the rest of the state, though, will still have to wait until June 1.