Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a bit of news Tuesday when he ranked legalizing gay marriage third on his list of legislative priorities for Illinois lawmakers in the months ahead, just after pension reform and gambling expansion.
"The time for marriage equality is now," Emanuel said to reporters during an appearance at Austin Polytechnical Academy High School. "The time is right and the time is here."
Emanuel's position on the issue wasn't a surprise — he backed gay marriage during his run for mayor in early 2011 — but his declaration of urgency was, particularly given the vastness of the fiscal problems that the outgoing General Assembly will tackle in two short upcoming sessions.
And it breathed new life into the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, a bill in Springfield to legalize gay marriage that was quietly consigned to the death slab of the House Rules Committee in March after its backers realized the votes weren't there for passage.
But the idea kept kicking. President Barack Obama announced his support for marriage equality in May, a move that built support for it among socially conservative African-American Democrats who have been reluctant to join the cause.
Then last week's election saw voters approve same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington state and reject a proposed constitutional amendment in Minnesota to limit marriage to male-female couples. These were the first such victories for supporters after 32 straight defeats at the polls and a sign that numerous opinion surveys showing more than half the public is now on board is no illusion.
"Marriage equality is the next step in our nation's march forward," Emanuel wrote in a letter to the Sun-Times this week. "Illinois must lead the way."
Actually, it's too late for leadership. Nine states have already legalized gay marriage — including the three that did so last week — as has the District of Columbia.
All Illinois can do now is hop on the train of history. All the trend lines show it's about to roll over the obstinate states where legislators refuse to recognize the inevitability, if not the wisdom and justice, of same-sex couples getting the same rights to formalize their relationships that are enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.
Equality Illinois, a Chicago-based gay-rights group, has been energized by this month's developments and is "working day and night" to promote marriage-equality legislation, according to CEO Bernard Cherkasov.
"We're speaking to people of faith and to suburban voters," Cherkasov said. "We're opening a new field office in Springfield next week to reach out to people in central and southern Illinois."
The pitch is that marriage, gay or straight, is a fundamentally stabilizing institution — good for the partners, good for any children they are raising and good for the communities in which they live.
Equality Illinois is also trying to sway and count votes in the General Assembly. Since Gov. Pat Quinn has already announced his support for gay marriage, all that's needed are simple majorities in both legislative chambers, where Democrats hold the upper hand.
A tough vote? Perhaps. But 25 members of the House and 16 members of the Senate are lame ducks, free to vote their consciences or to listen to voices from the future congratulating them on their timely abandonment of ancient prejudices.
Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, a chief sponsor of the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, told me Thursday that he's not sure, given the magnitude of other issues facing lawmakers, that there'll be time to revive the bill before the next General Assembly is sworn in Jan. 9. And if there is time, he said, he's not yet sure he has the votes to pass it.
"We still have some education to do," he said. "My strategy for this is the same as my strategy was for civil unions," which passed in the lame-duck session two years ago. "I'm not going to rush things unless I'm sure I'm going to win."
He will win. For sure.
And since the only question is when, his fellow legislators need to ask themselves what the nation itself is asking: "Why not now?"
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