On Feb. 18, the Cook County Clerk's office released a report providing data from one year of same-sex marriage in Cook County. The report shows a high number of marriage licenses and also shows great diversity in the gender, age, race, occupation and area of residence of these marriages.
Cook County Clerk David Orr was granted clearance to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Feb. 21, 2014. Since then, more than 6,500 same-sex couples have married in Cook County. In comparison, about 32,000 marriage licenses are issued annually to opposite-sex couples. According to the American Community Survey of 2010, almost 1 percent of the couple households in Illinois are same-sex couples. Orr told Windy City Times, "It proves very significantly that there's a demand … an overwhelming desire of couples who have loved each other for so long to get married."
And this desire cuts across all age groups. Of those receiving same-sex marriage licenses, 74 couples were in their teens and 42 couples were over eighty years old. "Thousands of people have been wanting this" Orr said. "It's a victory for people who have waited for so long."
The demand for marriage also seems to be split along gender lines. Fifty-two percent of couples identified as male and forty-eight percent of couples identified as female.
The race of same-sex couples receiving licenses was roughly representative of the population of Cook County. Of those who gave their race, more than 50 percent are Caucasian, more than 10 percent percent are Hispanic, more than 10 percent are African-American and about 5 percent are Asian or another race. According to the U.S. Census, the population of Cook County is more than half Caucasian, about 25 percent Hispanic, about 25 percent African-American, and almost 10 percent Asian.
The geographic location of marriage licenses is equally diverse. At least one license was issued to a couple in nearly every Chicago zip code and almost every Cook County municipality. About half of the marriage licenses were issued for residents of Chicago. But the Cook county municipalities of Evanston and Oak Park also received high numbers of marriage licenses.
The ability to get marriage licenses has also drawn in couples from outside of Cook County. Over three hundred couples from other Illinois counties came to Cook County to get married. And almost two thousand same-sex couples from 41 other states and Puerto Rico came to Cook County for the same reason. Some couples traveled internationally including fourteen couples from countries such as China, Russia, Spain, England, Germany, Austria, and Thailand.
In the area of education, more than 80 percent of spouses had either attended or graduated from college and 25 percent had received a post-graduate or doctorate degree. There were hundreds of occupations listed by those receiving licenses. The most common occupations were teachers, individuals within medical professions, lawyers and members of the U.S. military. But other occupations included truck drivers, factory workers, farmers and welders.
"The thing for me that I am so pleased and so proud about is," said Orr, "is that it was done so successfully. … It was done very professionally and very positively." Well over a thousand couples were able to convert a civil union to a marriage, free of charge. These licenses were backdated to the day of the original civil union. Of these couples, more than 300 were issued licenses that were backdated to June 2011, the first month that civil unions were allowed in Cook County. The most popular day to obtain a marriage license was June 2, 2014, the same day that the entire state of Illinois received marriage equality.
Orr told Windy City Times that the diversity he has seen in same-sex marriage compares favorably to the diversity seen in opposite-sex marriage. He believes that the diversity of same-sex marriages "continues to reflect the diversity of Cook County." He expects that, in the future, we may see the diversity of Cook County same-sex marriages increase as more couples from less diverse states are able to legally marry in their home state.
The full report is at www.cookcountyclerk.com .
