What lessons do the recent Haas Fund study conducted by New York University professor and political scientist Patrick Egan hold for Illinois where both a civil unions and marriage equality bill have been introduced into the General Assembly and where the state's leading gay-rights advocacy organization is pressing lawmakers to enact civil unions, the next best thing.
"Even though there is no binding referendum process," said Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov. "It is extremely important that we build public support for LGBT equality legislation, specifically partnership recognition."
First, relying on the courts to secure rights not enough because legislatures can over turn" any gains, he said, especially "if they do not reflect the will of the people."
At the same time, Cherkasov explained during a telephone interview, "It's not enough to secure victories in the Legislature because if they do not reflect the will of the people," any law "can be overturned."
For those two reasons, he added, "It's important for us to secure and sustain our victories through educating the general population."
To that end, Equality Illinois has a two-pronged statewide public-education program, with outreach downstate to Carbondale and Belleville, throughout central and western Illinois to Springfield and the Quad Citieslocations all far away from Chicago and the big city influence. "We've started this work early and intend to keep on doing it in every corner of the state," said Cherkasov.
One outreach effort, Equality Illinois' Faith and Freedom Project, aims to "engage leaders and communities of faith in understanding LGBT equality issues, what same-sex partnership recognition means, and how it affects people on the ground every single day," Cherkasov explained, pointing to the Equality Prayer Breakfast, held earlier this year in Chicago and which included 100 faith leadersJews, mainline Protestants, and Catholicsall in attendance to voice support for same-sex unions and partnership recognition.
As a former seminarian, Cherkasov "rejects outright the argument in the battle for marriage equality that it's God versus gays," he said, adding, Equality Illinois has on staff and its board of directors people who are "fluent in the language of theology" and who are "active in their faith communities," enabling "us to take a longer-term" view.
Indeed, an orthodox rabbi presided over the concluding prayer service. The rabbi's main point, Cherkasov said, served as a reminder: "God's very first concern was to create partners for human beings. That has been a consistent concern to this very day."
So much for those who say, "true people of faith" don't LGBT equality," Cherkasov said. "The same people who say an orthodox Jew wouldn't support gay rights" are the same ones who "tell us a true Catholic wouldn't" either.
Undoubtedly, Catholic Church hierarchy is a major player in Chicago and throughout the state. In fact, Illinois' Catholic population is slightly more than 30 percent, with Chicago's nearly 5 million among the faithful ( nearly 39 percent ) ranking the local archdiocese third in the nation, according to church data from 2008.
But within the organized Catholic community, explained Cherkasov, "There is diversity of opinion. When people look how the law impact daily lives, it's not about morality," he said, adding, "It's about making sure people in long term relationships are able to support each other and stay together without having the law step in and pull them apart."
Another Equality Illinois outreach effort, the Ally for Equality Project, reaches out to heterosexual allies, family members, parents, friends, coworkers, neighbors and people "who don't know anyone openly gay" and are "focused on fairness, the core issue of equality," or fundamental Midwestern values, explained Cherkasov. "Our idea is to engage them and make sure they understand what relationship recognition means so when the time comes for them at the ballot box, they can make informed choices."
In the short run, one choice seems clear for LGBT voters and allies. " [ The gubernatorial race ] is extremely important to us," said Cherkasov. "We're doing everything to make sure the progressive side wins.
"It's a very clear-cut choice between someone [ Democrat and incumbent Governor Pat Quinn ] who has said he supports civil unions and he will work to pass legislation and an opponent who not only does not support us, but whose very first act after becoming the Republican nominee [ state Senator Bill Brady ] was to propose an amendment to the Constitution that would permanently ban any recognition for same-sex relationships.
"Then when that [ idea ] was not moving very far, [ Brady ] proposed gutting the Illinois Human Rights Act to allow discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity because the current law prohibits that right now."
The bottom line for LGBT voters is this, Cherkasov added, is that " [ h ] e is as homophobic and dangerous and scary as can be."