The Daily Background
| Slow but steady progress on same sex marriage in the United States
by Arlen Parsa
Wikipedia’s equality map, circa late November 2008, right after Obama was elected:
The same map, today:
Color key:
Quite a change, as you can see.
Now, New Hampshire’s gay marriage bill has hit a snag because the amendment the governor insisted on (which added additional protections for religious institutions who didn’t honor same sex marriages) was turned down by the legislature by two votes. It seems that a lot of Democrats were absent for the vote, so it’s unlikely that we’ve heard the last of this matter in the Granite State.
Meanwhile, here in Illinois, a civil unions bill is likely to be approved next week:
The Illinois General Assembly is expected to approve a measure next week that would legalize civil unions, according to an LGBT activist.
Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois, said Thursday he’s “absolutely” expecting the full state House and the Senate to pass a civil union measure either Tuesday or Wednesday. The bill has support from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D).
[…]
…Should the measure become law, both gay and straight couples could enter into civil unions. As there’s no explicit language regarding an effective date, couples could start entering into civil unions 30 days after the bill is signed into law, Garcia said.
