Illinois' enacted marriage equality law takes effect beginning today. The Illinois state legislature passed the law in a special session last year, but it would not go into effect till June 1, 2014. And, then a judge ruled that there was no justification for requiring same-sex couples to wait in Illinois back in February of this year. However, that ruling only applied to Chicago's Cook County. Subsequent to the ruling, the Attorney General encouraged other counties to begin offering marriage licences to same-sex couples. Fifteen of them did. Today, all 102 counties in Illinois will be required to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples. A few county clerks offices may be open today around the state for this purpose, and the others will wait to open tomorrow.
From Box Turtle Bulletin:
Marriage Equality Goes Statewide: Illinois. Some same-sex couples have already been legally married in Illinois, particularly in Chicago’s Cook County, long before the law officially took effect today. Cook County began issuing marriage licenses last February after a Federal Judge ruled that there was no justification for forcing couples to wait until June 1. That ruling only applied to Cook County, but state’s Attorney General followed that with a statement encouraging the remaining counties to follow suit and begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples. Some did and some didn’t, but today none of it matters. Marriage equality is now the law throughout all of the state’s 102 counties. Today is also the day when those in civil unions can officially file paperwork to upgrade their unions into marriages, although for all practical purposes, they probably won’t be able to do that until tomorrow when county clerks offices open for regular hours. A few counties — tiny Montgomery County is one — have already said they will open today for special hours. Meanwhile, vendors across the state are already reporting that they are seeing a significant uptick in business ahead of the summertime marrying season.