David Orr
Considering Cook County Clerk David Orr's strong support of GLBT rights and same-sex marriage, we were shocked to see David Orr denounced recently by a few persons in the GLBT community. In the 1970s, Orr's Independent Democrats of the 49th Ward organization endorsed equal rights for gays and lesbians. Orr was a vocal supporter of GLBT causes during his aldermanic campaigns in the '70s and '80s and became one of the first sponsors of the gay-rights bill in the Chicago City Council. Remember, this was during a time when few elected officials would even say the words 'gay' or 'lesbian' in public, much less champion GLBT issues.
Campaigning for county clerk in 1990, Orr publicly supported gay partnership rights and became the first elected official in the county to bar discrimination in his office based on sexual orientation. He also played a role in crafting the county's gay-rights bill and was one of the first elected officials to appoint openly gay and lesbian staffers to top posts. Orr was instrumental in winning approval of domestic-partnership benefits for county employees and helped establish the county's domestic-partnership registry, which his office administers.
Orr may have upset some activists by not issuing sham marriage licenses, but he knew they would be voided by state law. He knew they would trigger a legal and constitutional backlash and refused to do it just to bolster his public image. Moreover, issuing illegal marriage licenses would have seriously hurt our cause in Illinois and would have done nothing to address injustices or unequal treatment of the GLBT community. It would have forced the Illinois Attorney General to seek injunctive relief within minutes to stop the County Clerk from issuing marriage licenses. It would have provided unstoppable momentum to an amendment to the Illinois Constitution prohibiting same-sex marriages. And all of that would have been just for the issuance of a few marriage licenses that would have not have been worth the paper that they were printed on.
Orr wisely took advice from a diverse group of gay and lesbian community activists and refused to unleash this Pandora's Box of horrors and instead publicly supported changing state law through the State Legislature or the courts. Those serious about gay marriage should target the Illinois General Assembly to amend existing marriage laws or ask the Illinois courts to determine whether the current law is unconstitutional. Activists in Massachusetts did that and now same-sex marriage is a reality there.
Assailing one of our longtime friends—who not only supports gay marriage but helped us escape the bullet of an anti-gay amendment—only hurts our cause. If we behave like this to our friends, who needs enemies?
Michael Bauer, Kelly Cassidy, Tom Chaderjian, Jessica Halem, Greg Harris, Rick Ingram, Mark Ishaug, Russ Klettke, Michael McRaith, Gail Morse, Mary Morten, Chuck Renslow, Debra Shore, The Rev. Stan Sloan, Carolyn Soodek, Ald. Tom Tunney, Lauren Verdich, Steve Wood
2004 In Review
To the editors of Chicago Free Press and Windy City Times:
I just want to point out that your newspapers left out another significant accomplishment in 2004. That is the State of Illinois passed and signed into law on July 15, 2004 HB 3857, the HIV Organ Donation Law. This was significant for the State of Illinois and the U.S. Transplantations on HIVer's has been allowed within the past four years. I know, because I am an HIVer who has survived a liver transplant on May 14, 2004. I am living with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B Co-infection.
While there has been controversy on performing transplantations on people living with HIV/AIDS, the success rate is improving. And sustains the fact that people with HIV/AIDS can survive as well after transplantation as those who are mono-infected with Hepatitis liver disease or End Stage Liver Disease ( ESLD ) in the right settings. The Honorable Larry McKeon and John Cullerton, along with Patrick Lynch, M.D. and Robert Murphy, M.D. ( Northwestern Memorial Hospital ) worked hard with the legislature and Gov. Rod Blagojevich in changing the state law in allowing HIV Organ Donation to help those co-infected with HIV/AIDS and Liver Disease.
We need to recognize that people living with HIV have 30% chance of contracting Hepatitis C and 10% contracting or living with Hepatitis B, let alone other forms of Chronic Liver Disease. While we have this law in Illinois, transplant surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, University of Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and University of Illinois Chicago, can not perform HIV to HIV Organ Transplantations, because federal statutes prohibit it. ...
While this is not the solution to the shortage of organs needed in this country, it is a source that needs to be explored and tapped into. ... I hope you will give more attention to the disparities of living with HIV/AIDS in the future. It is not going to go away.
George S. Martinez, Patient Advocate
YMCA and Trans Event
To: Stephen S. Dahlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago:
I find your handling of the incident at the New City YMCA involving the transgender ball attendees and parents with their children deeply troubling.
When parents of children arrive at the Y, they are the ones who hurl sexual slurs at the transgender attendees at their scheduled overnight event. Yet, you assert that the 'integrity' of the YMCA was compromised by the mere presence of the trans ball attendees, not the behavior of the insulting and apparently transphobic parents.
These homo-hating parents evidently have in you an open supporter of their backward views.
I find it probable that if a scheduling conflict had involved a group other than transgender or some other 'controversial' folk that no resignations and no firings would have occurred.
Is the YMCA in Chicago joining the rising chorus of bigots who would deny the rights of gay and transgender people in this city?
Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network
formerly Chicago Anti-Bashing Network
