In the broad arc of gay rights in Illinois, passage last week of the civil union bill will be a notable moment — rightly recorded and celebrated. When Gov. Pat Quinn signs the bill, gays and straights in this state will be on much more of an equal legal footing in matters of property, health care and estates. This is a rare moment to be proud of being an Illinoisan.
But we look back and we look forward, too, in this moment.
Progress in human rights always begins with brave individuals who have had enough and are unwilling to suffer unceasing degradation. They stand up and absorb the fears, the hate, the ignorance of the rest of us. Though strafed, they become symbols that others emulate. And only very slowly, and always with pain and setbacks, those of us blessed to be in the majority, straight-jacketed by our beliefs, begin to see the faces of the human rights we have abridged.
Change comes. Too slow. But it comes.
In Oak Park we salute the members of the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA). Over two decades they have offered our community a tutorial on pressing the case for gay rights. It has been an insistent effort with, yes, a gay agenda. But at every step it has also been a generous effort, allowing those of us who carried our bias and our fear to engage and to change.
Among the political efforts of OPALGA have been civil unions. Its members, and those who have come to support its efforts, have worked vigilantly on local legislators to convince them of the rightness of this action, of the corollaries between civil rights and gay rights. We are proud that all members of the state legislature who represent Oak Park and River Forest voted in support of civil unions.
We look ahead, though, too. The inescapable truth is that civil unions are half the loaf. Marriage is the singular goal. Not same-sex marriage or heterosexual marriage. But simply, marriage — the opportunity for two people in love to commit and, in committing, to receive the rights and the protections of our civil society.
This is not complicated. It is hard, but it is not complicated. And it ought to be next on the human rights agenda in Illinois.
