LGBT Illinois citizens have long struggled against a legal system that treats families of same-sex couples as legal strangers. The well documented economic and legal toll of that discrimination galvanized the general public’s support for passage of the Illinois Religious Liberty and Marriage Fairness Act, now set to go into effect on June 1, 2014. After passage of the measure, the ACLU of Illinois, along with our allies at Lambda Legal, asked a federal court to insure that the promise of marriage was real for those facing serious illness -- assuring that couples with a partner facing such a circumstance did not have to wait until June. We told the court that if the ailing partner passed away before June, then the guarantee of marriage would never be realized.

In today's Chicago Tribune, Ron Grossman puts a personal, intimate face on the couples facing this crisis. Grossman accompanied Ron Dorfman, one of the ACLU of Illinois clients who successfully petitioned for the allowance of expedited licenses, as he picked out a wedding cake to celebrate his marriage to Ken Ilio. Noting Dorfman’s pleasure and delight, Grossman considers the personal pain and sense of social isolation others must have felt because they were legally barred from experiencing such simple human joy.
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The ACLU has long maintained that any and all mandated, uniform prison sentences derail the fair and balanced application of justice. The travesty of rigidly imposed harsh, life sentences on non-violent drug offenders led to the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 which freed judges from having to impose the one-size-fits-all sentences regardless of any mitigating circumstances, even for first time offenders. The Chicago Sun Times editorial points out that the 2010 law did not retroactively address the plight of 8,800 drug offenders already in federal prisons serving life sentences and applauds Senator Dick Durbin’s efforts to enact new, corrective legislation. The editorial quotes Deputy Attorney General James Cole who last week maintained:

There are more low-level, non-violent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would likely have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of precisely the same offences today. This is not fair, and it harms our criminal justice system.

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Illinois State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Orland Park) has introduced legislation to criminalize revenge postings of nude or sexually explicit photos and videos on the internet. Calling such posts harassment and cyber bullying, Hastings’ bill would make it a felony to post these types of pictures, taken during private relationships, on the internet without permission. Hastings maintains that current Illinois statutes fail to offer protections against former partners sharing pictures out of revenge.  Similar bills are being considered in 13 other states and have already been enacted in New Jersey and California. However, the ACLU has long urged caution whenever issues of free speech and censorship are raised.  In a statement commenting on Senator Hastings’ bill, Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois Communications Director, maintained that:

“We recognize that embarrassment, shame and damage to one's reputation can result from the non-consensual publication of intimate photos and videos.   While this measure seeks to criminalize this conduct, Illinois civil law already provides a remedy, including the removal of the offending image. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois hopes that legislators will examine these civil remedies before adopting criminal penalties.”

Read the Chicago Tribune article.