Posted on 07/01/2003 6:18:16 PM PDT by Barnacle
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
By The Leader-Chicago Bureau - Opposite sex domestic partnerships not to be included, clerk's office says
Rev Bob VandenBosch, lobbyist for Concerned Christian Americans said today is a "sad day for Cook County and the state of Illinois." CHICAGO -- Cook County Board of Commissioners voted today in a 13 to 3 vote to set up a registry for same-sex couples, the first such countywide registry in Illinois.
The certificates will be available to Cook County residents in 90 days, but only to couples who are of the same sex. No heterosexual domestic partnerships will be authorized to receive the certificates, according to the Cook County Clerk's office.
Cook County Clerk David Orr's office has been preparing for this development.
Scott Burnham, spokesman for the Clerk, said today that those who are applying will need to pay $30 and both of the partners will need to come in personally to obtain the domestic partnership certificate.
"When the couple comes in, they will need to fulfill some requirements before obtaining the certificate," Burnham said. "They will need to swear that they are not legally married to someone of the opposite sex, that they are living together in a committed relationship, and they are both over eighteen years of age."
Burnham said that the certificate will provide private sector employers with proof that their employees are in a relationship, opening the way for health care insurance coverage for the other person in the same sex relationship.
“The only purpose that I can see for the registry is to incrementally create a new form of marriage in Cook County and then work to expand it to the entire state. It’s a step toward giving rights and benefits to couples who do not qualify for marriage,” Kathy Valente, state director of Concerned Women for America of Illinois said.
The ordinance, which was sponsored by Commissioners Mike Quigley, John Stroger and Mayor Richard M. Daley's brother, John Daley, easily passed the board with one "present" vote. Commissioner Carl Hansen spoke out against the ordinance.
"This is a sad day for Cook County, and for the state of Illinois," Rev. Bob VandenBosch of Villa Park said today. VandenBosch has lobbied against preferential rights for homosexuals at the state capitol for over ten years.
"This ordinance today only muddies up the waters on the issue of marriage," VandenBosch, on the staff of the Quentin Road Baptist Church, said today. "How will these couples register, how will they un-register their partnerships?"
Burnham said that the couples will un-register in a similar way that they register -- likely to be simply filing paperwork, "nothing as complicated as getting a divorce."'
Will bi-sexuals be allowed to register with more than one person in their relationships?
"You need to call Quigley's office for that answer," Burnham said. "I am assuming that only two persons will be allowed to be included in a domestic partnership, just as it is with marriage certificates."
Questions about inheritance provisions, medical care authorization and asset disbursement in case of partnership termination have not been clearly outlined either, the clerk's office said.
"The homosexual movement has always wanted preferential treatment, and now they have it in Cook County," VandenBosch said. "The only hope for marriage to be protected in Illinois is for the church to begin an outcry against this. With the Supreme Court's decision last week, and this decision today, maybe onlookers will finally get involved in protecting our children's future."
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What are your thoughts concerning the issues raised in this story? Write us at letters@illinoisleader.com.
Due to the criminal scandals of the last RINO Governor, we now have a Bill Clinton equivalent. While the rest of the country is wising up, Illinois is sliding into the abyss.
The next three years will certainly bring this state to a crisis point. If we can’t set it straight, I’m packing up the wagon and heading west to a town where …this crap won't happen…
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