News & Commentary

The Chicago Tribune reports on the current status of the bill that would create guidelines for teaching comprehensive sexual health education in Illinois schools. After passing in the House, the bill now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

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An article on DNAInfo illustrates Chicago's efforts to expand its surveillance camera program in light of the Boston bombings. Citing a recent ACLU of Illinois report on the city's video surveillance cameras, there are approximately 22,000 surveillance cameras accessed by city officials. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has endorsed the use of surveillance cameras to reduce crime. The ACLU of Illinois has called for increased transparency around how they are used. DNAInfo talked to ACLU of Illinois senior staff counsel and author of the camera report, Adam Schwartz:

A ban on same-sex marriage violates the state Constitution's equal protection clause. The law does not allow the state or federal government to create a separate class of marriage based on a person's sexual orientation. There is no other way to describe this than to call it discrimination. That is why, in state court, I have intervened in a lawsuit challenging Illinois' current marriage law, and at the federal level, my office has filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court that support overturning California's same-sex marriage ban and finding the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Legal arguments aside, this issue at its heart is about one of the most fundamental decisions we can make — with whom to share our lives. In every community in Illinois, same-sex couples have chosen to join together and, in many instances, to raise families of their own. These couples are our relatives and friends, our neighbors, co-workers and parents of our children's classmate

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WBEZ covered the Illinois House's passage of House Bill 2675 which modernizes laws regarding sexual health education in Illinois, requiring that curricula must be age-appropriate, medically accurate and complete:

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We note with sadness the passing of Michael McConnell, Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He died over the weekend after a lengthy illness.