News & Commentary

The 40th Annual Chicago Gay Pride Parade takes place this Sunday, and the ACLU will be representing again this year. We're very excited to have a place in the parade, and our theme will be "Building an Illinois We Can Be Proud Of". Expect to see a lot of tool belts and hard hats.Of course, we would love to have as many parti

By now, you may know that the legislative session ended on Sunday evening without a final vote in the Illinois House of Representatives on establishing fairness lesbian and gay couples in our state through the adoption of civil unions. While we are disappointed that the measure did not progress to the Illinois Senate, and ultimately to the Governor, some progress was made during this difficult and historic session.We saw an increase during the past few months in the number of state representatives who were willing to express their full and public support for the civil union measure. This is due in no small measure to the hard work of our lobbyists in Springfield, Mary Dixon and James Ferg-Cadima, and the hundreds of ACLU of Illinois members who took the time to write letters, send e-mail messages, place telephone calls and visit the offices of their state representative pointing out the fundamental importance of this proposal. We are closer today to reaching fairness for our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues and our family members in gay and lesbian relationships than we were in January - despite the distractions caused by the impeachment and removal of a sitting government and a fierce debate over tax increases and budget deficits.Our fight for fundamental fairness goes on, and we look forward to the day when equality and fairness is written into these policies and all families in our state enjoy the same, critical legal protections. To that end, we will be back in touch with you - sooner, rather than later - with plans for a push aimed at securing passage during the November "veto" session of the legislature.Thank you again for all your support and your help,Jill

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Before the Bush administration left office, we received one last "gift" - the Health Care Denial Rule, a midnight regulation that threatens access to basic reproductive health care, including birth control and information about abortion. This rule permits health care workers to refuse to provide basic health care services - and even information and counseling about those services - if they have an objection. What's especially frustrating is that this rule it is entirely unnecessary because for years, federal law has carefully balanced protections for individual religious liberty and patients' access to reproductive health care.We're happy to report that the new administration has taken the first step in restoring the careful balance between individual religious liberty and access to reproductive health care by proposing to rescind this rule. Let the administration know that we support this change by sending in comments on the proposal.When the Health Care Denial Rule was first proposed, more than 40,000 ACLU supporters across the country took action through the Action Center to tell the Bush administration not to take this damaging action. Now the new administration needs to hear from you too! Comments in support of the rescission are critical to changing the law. Read more about the regulation, and send in a comment in support of women's access to basic reproductive health care and information. Comments are due by April 9th, so take action now!

Among the many issues we are working on this session in Springfield this year is a measure that helps create a safe environment for all students in our public schools. House Bill 2547, if it becomes law, will make it illegal for a school to bully or otherwise discriminate against students because of their disability status, race, religion or sexual orientation. The bill passed unanimously (17 to 0) out of the Judiciary I - Civil Law Committee of the Illinois House this week.

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