CHICAGO - Same-sex couples in Illinois’ largest county began receiving marriage licenses immediately after a federal judge’s ruling Friday said by some attorneys to possibly give county clerks statewide justification to also issue the documents right away.
Illinois approved same-sex marriage last year; the new law takes effect June 1. However, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled Friday that same-sex marriages can begin now in Cook County, where Chicago is located.
“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,” she wrote in the order.
The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed against Cook County Clerk David Orr, who supports gay marriage. Coleman already ruled in December that same-sex couples did not have to wait until June to marry if one or both partners had a life-threatening illness. Several same-sex couples married after that ruling.
Advocates for same-sex marriage immediately celebrated the ruling, and Orr said his office would be open two hours later Friday, until 7 p.m., to accommodate any couples who wanted to get their marriage licenses after work.
He even waived the 24-hour waiting period after a license is obtained to perform a wedding for Chicago couple Mercedes Santos and Theresa Volpe, who’ve been together for more than two decades and have three children together.
“This is a day that’s been a long time coming. It’s an historical day,” Orr said earlier Friday.
Charlie Gurion and David Wilk were the first in line to get a license. Gurion, 25, proposed to Wilk, 31, when they were in Paris last year. They’ve planned a September wedding but will legally marry within 60 days, per state law.
“It’s really shocking to be first,” Gurion said. “We’re honored to be part of this huge, momentous day.”
Officials with the Catholic Conference of Illinois, which opposes gay marriage, declined to comment Friday. So did the Thomas More Society, a Chicago public-interest law firm that helped defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban in a 2012 lawsuit.
The judge’s decision specifies that it only applies to Cook County.
But attorneys for Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which filed the lawsuit, said there was guidance for clerks statewide.
Christopher Clark, counsel at Lambda Legal in Chicago, said the fact that a federal judge said the state’s marriage ban was unconstitutional by violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment could be a signal to other county clerks who have to uphold the law.
“It’s an enormous victory,” he said. “We’re thrilled.”
But there was still confusion Friday as county clerks across the state were sorting out what the decision could mean for them.
Madison County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza in southwestern Illinois said she hadn’t seen the ruling yet and wanted the state’s attorney to take a look at it.
In central Illinois, Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten said his local legal staff would also be taking a look at the ruling.
“We want to be absolutely certain that before we move forward for Champaign County that anything we do is unquestionably valid,” Hulten said, adding that he hoped they’d have clarity as soon as possible.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed the marriage law in November after attempts earlier in the year had stalled in the state Legislature.
“Every county across the state should enjoy the same freedom without having to wait until June,” he said in a Friday statement.
Same-sex marriage legislation was fought hard by some of Illinois’ most well-recognized religious figures, including Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Rev. James Meeks, a former state senator who runs a politically influential megachurch in Chicago. He was part of a group of pastors that sponsored robocalls in several legislative districts.
Although Illinois once appeared poised to become the first Midwestern state to approve gay marriage in the Legislature, Minnesota did it sooner and started holding its first same-sex weddings over the summer. Iowa allows gay marriages, too, but because of a court ruling, not a legislative vote.
The state’s first same-sex couple to wed - Vernita Gray and her partner of five years, Patricia Ewert - did so in late November after an expedited marriage license was granted because Gray was terminally ill with cancer. Coleman’s initial ruling for other couples in the same situation came after that.
On Friday, Illinois couples said they were jubilant the ruling had been extended to all Cook County couples.
Carolyn and Sara Kujawa of Chicago were the second couple to get a license Friday. Sara Kujawa said she saw the headlines about the judge’s ruling and they decided to head to the county building. The couple have a young son and are already joined in a civil union.
“It’s important to have the same thing as everyone else,” Sara Kujawa said.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/22/2014