Illinois has become the sixth state to allow same-sex civil unions. The "Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act," will provide legal recognition of gay couples and give them some of the same benefits automatically available to married couples, including the right to visit a sick partner in the hospital, the right to have a licensed ceremony done, the right to share a room in a nursing home, disposition of a deceased loved one's remains and the right to make decisions about a loved one's medical care. Additionally, same-sex couples are now able to inherit property from one another and in some cases may be eligible for employer-sponsored insurance plans. The law also grants same-sex couples the right to sue for the wrongful death of their partner, to be recognized as legal parents of their children, to receive pension benefits and to act to dissolve the relationship.
The Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act will also protect the rights of religious institutions to define marriage as they choose, and will be available to any couple, same-sex or opposite-sex, in a committed relationship who meet the following requirements: 18 years of age or older, not in an existing marriage or civil union, and are not related. It will take effect June 1, 2011. Under Federal Law, civil unions for same-sex couples remains unrecognized.
Rep. Greg Harris, a co-sponsor of the bill, stated: "We have a chance today to make Illinois a more fair state, a more just state, and a state which treats all of its citizens equally under the law . . . we have a chance here, as leaders have had in previous generations, to correct injustice and to move us down the path toward liberty."
George Pecherek & Associates, P.C.
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