THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

The Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago's Pride Week program "Bringing a Vermont Civil Union Back to Illinois: Bumps to Expect on the Road to Equality" explored the implications of Vermont's law for the Illinois lesbian and gay community.

For Vermont same-sex couples there is much to celebrate in the legislation. The panelists gathered were unanimous in their caution in advocating any great movement by Illinois residents to take advantage of Vermont's civil unions.

In December 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court decreed, in the case Baker v. Vermont, that denying same-sex couples the rights that flow from civil marriage violated Vermont's Constitution. The court ordered the Vermont legislature to craft a remedy to end the discriminatory exclusion.

Placing Vermont's law in a historical perspective, Lauren Raphael of the ACLU reminded the audience that laws prohibiting persons of different races from marrying didn't begin to fall until 1948 when California became the first state to have its law overturned by its state's court.

Nationally, antimiscegenation laws were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 in the case Loving v. Virginia. The historical experience in that battle shows that the Vermont victory has changed the consciousness but there is a way to go before the political and legal hurdles to gay marriage are surmounted.

Professor Katharine K. Baker of IIT/Chicago-Kent College of Law said what happened in Vermont was driven by the "common benefits" clause of the Vermont State Constitution. The decision was very Vermont-specific, she said, as other states don't have such constitutional language.

Attorney Don Gottesman of Gottesman and Storm said that Illinois provides no rights to unmarried couples in the areas of healthcare, property, disposition of a body, and estate. In Illinois, in the absence of any laws recognizing formalized gay relationships, a same-sex couple seeking to construct a legal relationship with one another should seek the advice of tax and legal professionals to utilize the legal tools that would be appropriate for their circumstances.