Rep. Dwight Kay (112th District) of Edwardsville filed the bill in the state general assembly Jan. 10, making it the fifth bill of its kind to be filed in the last year, according to Equality Illinois Director of Public Policy Randy Hannig, Jr.

“Catholic charities have gone through the courts and the courts have said ‘no,’” said Hannig. “The governor said that there’s no way that any adoption services will discriminate against same-sex couples. You’d think that when all three branches of government disagree with you, you’d give up.”

Currently, under the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Unions act, all benefits afforded to people united in a marriage are also afforded to those who are in a civil union, including the right to adopt. The new law requires that all agencies receiving state funds use one standard for placing children: What is best for the child, according to Hannig.

“What is in the best interest of the child?” he said. “Not their biased criteria.”

The bill is summarized on the Illinois General Assembly website, which states that, “… a child welfare agency that is religiously based or owned by, operated by, or affiliated with a bona fide religious organization may decline an adoption or foster family home application, including any related licensure and placement, from a party to a civil union if acceptance of that application would constitute a violation of the organization’s sincerely held religious beliefs …”

So far, Rep. David Reis (108th District) and Rep. Paul Evans (102nd District) have been added as chief co-sponsors.

Hannig doesn’t see the bill going any further.

“Obviously, this governor won’t sign the bill if it even makes it to his desk,” he said.

A call made to Kay’s office was not immediately returned.

Headlined, “Hey, Cardinal Francis George, Gay is not like the KKK,” the TWO advertisement slams the Cardinal for his comments comparing the LGBT community to the KKK, and "debunks the lies and misinformation disseminated by the Archbishop about the LGBT community," according to a statement by Truth Wins Out (TWO).

The ad comes on the heels of an online petition launched by TWO calling on George to step down -- the petition has garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

“We felt compelled to place this ad after Cardinal George compounded his initial smear with further insults disguised as an apology,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen.

“It seems the sin of pride is keeping George from saying he is sorry for his outrageous and misleading remarks about Gay Pride. At this point, the only road to redemption is his resignation.”

George’s remarks first came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual gay pride parade in June. The event was originally set to begin at 10 a.m., but a priest complained that the starting time would interfere with morning services.

In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”

But instead of backtracking on his comments, George later rationalized his comment his this statement, issued by the Archdiocese:

“When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church.

One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940’s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.”

“This is not a legitimate fight over religious liberty as George wrongly implies, but a vivid example of religious bigotry fueled by a mean-spirited analogy that linked innocent, law abiding families with the KKK,” said Besen. “We will stand up against such lies and speak out when LGBT people are unfairly maligned.”

Last year, TWO launched a 160,000-signature Change.org petition that helped persuade Apple, Inc. to eliminate an “ex-gay” iPhone app by the group Exodus International.

Francis George

Last week Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader, Cardinal Francis George, decried a rerouting of the 2012 June LGBT Pride parade route to a path that would take the march in front of a Catholic church. The Cardinal caused an uproar, saying “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”

Initially the Cardinal refused to apologize or renounce his comments, but facing criticism on Christmas Sunday, the Cardinal sought to downplay his comments.

“Obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshiping God, well then that’s the comparison, but it’s not with people and people — it’s parade-parade,” George said Sunday.

When the Cardinal made his comments, initially on a Chicago Fox station, a reporter asked him if his comparison between the LGBT community and the Ku Klux Klan were too harsh, but the Cardinal said no.

“It is, but you take a look at the rhetoric,” George responded. “The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.”

The organizers of Chicago Pride had already been in talks with the gay-friendly Catholic Church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, whose concerns had been characterized as being about the timing of the parade coinciding with parishioners leaving the church after Sunday morning mass. The church is located just outside of Chicago’s famous ‘Boystown’ gay neighborhood.

According to the news network, Cardinal George plans to send a letter of resignation to the Vatican after his 75th birthday next month. The resignation appears not to be related to the calls among the LGBT community for the Cardinal’s resignation, as ABCnews notes all bishops are required to do so. Chicago will await a decision on whether or not Pope Benedict XVI will accept the resignation.

Francis George

“You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,” the Cardinal told Fox News Chicago on Sunday.

“That’s a little strong analogy, isn’t it? Ku Klux Klan?” the Fox reporter said to the Cardinal in response.

“It is, but you take a look at the rhetoric,” he responded. “The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.”

The Rev. Eric Lee, Executive Director for the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — was quick to speak out against Cardinal George’s remarks.

“I have spent most of my adult life engaged in the civil rights struggle for African American people who have been terrorized by racist Klan violence,” Lee said in a statement. “I am insulted by the comparison of the Klan to the current LGBT movement. When we distort the history of terror for cheap political aims, we only inflict pain on those whose lives have been scarred by the Klan.”

The Pride parade controversy stems from a planned change to the route and start time of the annual LGBT Pride parade, which attracts over 750,000 people to the north side Chicago neighborhood every year.

After police complained about overcrowding and violence along the parade route in 2011, organizers planned to change the event’s route, and moved the start time up to 10:00am to noon to curb morning drinking.

The new route, however, takes the parade down Belmont St. in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church during crowded Sunday mass. Pastor Father Thomas Srenn and the church asked parade organizers to make changes to avoid a collision between the parade festivities and the Sunday service. Parade organizers — including openly gay city alderman Tom Tunney whose district the parade takes place in — and the parish agreed to changes that move the parade start time back to the original 12:00pm.

Fr. Srenn told the Windy City Times that the agreement satisfies Mt. Carmel’s concerns. “It was a good and reasonable solution that we all came to.”

According to the Windy City Times, Our Lady of Mount Carmel hosts the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach, and Srenn told the paper that the parish’s reservations about the event “had nothing to do with the content of the parade.”

In a statement this week, openly gay State Rep. Greg Harris, whose district includes the planned route, lamented the Cardinal’s “unfortunate choice of words.”

“It probably will provoke other unfortunate words [from some gay activists],” Harris said.

Cardinal George and the Archdiocese of Chicago have clashed on multiple issues this year, including the passage and implementation of Civil Unions in Illinois, and same-sex foster and adoptive parents, which resulted in Catholic Charities ending foster care placement services in the state in order to avoid being forced to place children with otherwise qualified same-sex couples, which the church objects to.

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Ashlynn Conner

The Chicago Tribune reported that Ashlynn's family said she had been teased by children at Ridge Farm Elementary School and in her neighborhood in the small town for several years. Ridge Farm is about 45 miles southeast of Champaign.

"When she started cheering for youth football, we'd gotten her hair cut in a bob," Ashlynn's grandmother, Lory Hackney said.

"The kids started making fun of her then. They started calling her a boy.'' Since then, she'd often been called fat or ugly, her family said.

County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said investigators are considering bullying as a possibility. "We are not ruling out bullying, but we don't have any firm evidence to support bullying," he said.

Ashlynn was a fifth-grader at Ridge Farm and did well in school, her family said, making the honor roll in the most recent quarter. She talked about becoming a veterinarian when she grew up.

But she complained Thursday after school about other girls picking on her that day and asked if she could be home-schooled, her mother said at a candlelight service for her daughter at a local church. Conner said she told Ashlynn they'd talk to the school principal this week about the problem.

Conner said she heard her daughter on the phone with a friend Friday night talking about being teased. A half-hour later, Ashlynn's 14-year-old sister found her hanging in her bedroom closet, Conner said.

"I don't know what was so bad she couldn't wait," Hackney said. She's a retired nurse and tried to give her granddaughter CPR, she said.

Chicago Tribune

The medical examiner noted that the final autopsy results may take a few weeks.

Experts say that incidents of suicides among young children under the age of 14 is uncommon but does happen hundreds of times a year.

Statistics from the Illinois Department of Health revealed that in 2009, three children in Illinois — one who was 10 and two aged 11 — killed themselves over a three-week period. The deaths weren't related.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 200 children between the ages of 10 and 14 killed themselves each year between 1999 and 2005, the most recent year for which data is available.

Three Roman Catholic dioceses have dropped their lawsuit against the state of Illinois, agreeing to transfer more than 1,000 foster care children and staff to other agencies in their regions to avoid placing children in the homes of gay and lesbian parents.

The Illinois Catholic Charities was seeking an exemption from the state's new civil unions law which took effect on June 1. The law requires any charity that accepts state money to provide child-care services to treat people in civil unions as it would treat married couples.

The decision by leaders in the dioceses of Joliet, Springfield and Belleville ends a historical partnership between Illinois and the charitable arm of the Catholic Church, which inspired the state to address child welfare in the first place and led to the creation of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

[...]

In discussions after the civil union bill went into effect in June, representatives for Catholic Charities in Joliet, Springfield, Peoria, Rockford and Belleville told the state that accommodating prospective foster parents in civil unions would violate Catholic Church teaching that defines marriage between a man and a woman.

Pointing to a clause in the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act that they believe protects religious institutions that don't recognize civil unions, the agencies said they would refer those couples elsewhere and only license married couples and single parents living alone.

But lawyers for the Illinois attorney general said that exemption only shields religious clergy who don't want to officiate at civil unions. The policy of Catholic Charities violated state anti-discrimination laws that demanded couples in civil unions be treated the same as married couples, they said.

Chicago Tribune

The state previously provided Catholic Charities $30 million annually for its services, but announced in July it would not renew its foster care and adoption contracts with Catholic Charities when the group said it would not comply with the civil unions law.

"I am encouraged to hear that Catholic Charities has realized they cannot win this lawsuit," said Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda.

"This case and the legislation that has been introduced multiple times this year is all about prioritizing religion over what is best for the children in their care. Finding a loving home for the thousands of children in the foster/adoption system should be the priority, not trying to exclude people based on religious dogma. Dropping this suit is a step in the right direction for what is best for all the citizens of this great state," he said.

The Rockford and Peoria dioceses have already terminated their adoption and foster cares programs and transferred their child welfare cases to other agencies willing to work with gay and lesbian couples.

Todd and Mark Wathen of Mattoon, Ill., allege that both the Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast in Paxton, Ill., and the Beall Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Alton, Ill., discriminated against them by refusing to host their legally recognized ceremony, reported the Windy City Times.

Mark (left) and Todd Wathen

Illinois legalized civil unions for same-sex couples earlier this year.

According to the complaints, filed individually on behalf of both Mark and Todd, the Wathens inquired with the inns in February, in anticipation of having a ceremony when civil unions went into effect in June. Both of the inns turned them away, they said.

"We were thrilled that Illinois provided legal recognition to our relationship," said Todd Wathen in the statement. "It hurt to face this blatant discrimination just as the state was making such progress in treating lesbian and gay couples fairly."

The complaint alleges that Jim Belote, Beall Mansion owner, told Todd Wathen in an email that his inn was only performing "traditional weddings."

[...]

Following their lack of success booking at the Beall Mansion, the Wathens contacted Jim Walden at Timber Creek. In an email response to their inquiry, Walden told Todd Wathen that his inn would "never" host same-sex civil unions or weddings because "we believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the bible says about it."

According to the complaints, Walden followed his response unsolicited three days later, citing verses on how "The Creator of the Earth looks at the gay lifestyle."

"It is not too late to change your behavior," the email stated. "He is loving and kind and ready to forgive all men their trespasses, including me."

Windy City Times

The couple, who has been together nearly ten years, has filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Dept. of Human Rights alleging violations of the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by businesses open to the public.

The attorney general’s office is “reviewing the case to determine if these individuals may have been discriminated against over their sexual orientation,” said Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. “If so, that would be a violation of the state’s civil rights law.”

Calvin Lindstrom, pastor of the Chicago Christian Liberty Academy, said that plastic bags containing bricks and scrawled with messages such as “Shut down Lively” were thrown through the school's windows, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.

Scott Lively

Lively, an anti-gay speaker and author, was scheduled to speak before a dinner gathering Saturday evening hosted by the Naperville, Ill.-based Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality, (AFTAH) -- a group that has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center for their ongoing propaganda campaign of demonizing the LGBTQ community.

Lively is a vehement activist against LGBTQ people and the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, a conservative Christian organization which also is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has stated that there is justification for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality," and has also been directly linked to pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda that would, if passed, make homosexuality punishable by a lengthy prison sentence or even death.

Sergeant Tom Boggs, a spokesman for the Arlington Heights Police, said several window panes and a glass door panel were shattered at the school located sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday. Police have declined comment on whether or not this act would be considered a hate crime.

According to the Sun-Times, an envelope in one of the bags contained a handwritten message saying, “This is just a sample of what we will do if you don’t shut down Scott Lively and AFTAH. Fuck Scott Lively. Quit the homophobic shit.”

Late Saturday, Peter LaBarbera, head of AFTAH, said he considered the incident to be a hate crime committed by gay activists.

“If this would have occurred at a gay church, there would have been a public outcry,” LaBarbera said.

Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago based Gay Liberation Network (GLN), said 30 people from his group and from the group Anti-Racist Action protested during Lively’s speech. He said he did not know who vandalized the academy but doubted it was the work of gay activists.

Alderman Tom Tunney told the Chicago Sun-Times the parade remains a celebration of the community's history and rights, but that it has outgrown its size, and that he wants to keep it safe.

"There’s people concerned about alcohol being consumed on that day," said Tunney, the city's first openly gay Alderman. "Complaints are that people actually bring their coolers and consume a lot. An earlier start time will promote less drinking."

The changes are the most significant to the parade in many years, said Rich Pfeiffer, chief organizer of the event.

"You weigh the pros and cons… and the bottom line was safety," said Pfeiffer. "We just did not want a repeat of last year."

A near doubling of attendance at the parade in June presented greater challenges for parade officials. At the 2011 Parade, crowds were so large and out of control that many parade-goers said they feared for their safety. Last year's parade saw a turnout of approximately 800,000 people, compared with an estimated 450,000 in 2010.

via: Windy City Times

Some have attributed increased attendance this year to media attention centering on LGBT people leading up to the parade, as the Illinois Civil Unions law went into effect earlier that same month.

When Illinois legalized civil unions on June 1 of this year, the Illinois State Department of Children and Family Services informed the adoption and foster care agency, Catholic Charities, that it would not renew its contract, citing the organizations refusal to put children in same-sex households.

Catholic Charities sued the state, asserting that this loss of over $30 million dollars in state funding, would effectively force the agency to shut down its adoption and foster care services.

The crux of the lawsuit, as addressed by Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt, was whether the State of Illinois had the legal right to void its annual contract with Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities, represented by the Thomas More Society - a legal group based out of Chicago - argued that because they had been providing these services for over forty years, and depended upon state funding to do so, they had a " protected property interest"

Though Catholic Charities argument may seem persuasive to some, Judge Schmidt was not convinced, stating that Catholic Charities does not have a right to a contract with the government, and that "Plaintiffs are not required by the state to perform these useful and beneficial services."

In fact, Judge Schmidt wrote, "The Plaintiffs' contract with the State, which is renewable annually, is a desire of the Plaintiffs to perform their mission as directed by their religious beliefs. The fact that the Plaintiffs have contracted with the State to provide foster care and adoption services for over forty years does not vest the Plaintiffs with a protected property interest."

Ben Wolf, the Associate Legal Director 0f the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, issued a statement praising the ruling, saying that:

Today's decision by Judge Schmidt is a good decision for the children under the care of DCFS in Illinois. The primary goal in foster care and adoptive services must be the best interest of the children in need of loving, secure homes.

The State has a responsibility and constitutional obligation to assure that all decisions about foster and permanent homes for children are made in the best interest of the child – not other factors including the religious views of the contractual provider.

Lesbians and gay men across Illinois daily provide secure, good homes for foster and adoptive children – and have done so for many years. These loving parents must be allowed to participate fully and equally in any program performing the state's function of licensing and placing children with foster or adoptive parents.

Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Schmidt ruled that contracts between the state and Catholic Charities of Joliet, Peoria and Springfield through June 30 would remain intact.

Last week, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it would not renew foster care and adoption contracts with the agencies because of their refusal to comply with the state's new civil unions law, which grants same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples.

Though the contracts had been renewed virtually automatically for years, negotiations seemed to be breaking down, and the state declined to renew the contracts last week. Since March, state officials have been investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster care parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away openly gay parents.

The judge set Aug. 15 for a full-scale hearing. In the meantime, he said, children in Catholic Charities' care will not be shifted to other social service agencies because that could risk "irreparable injury."

Catholic Charities argued the state's interpretation of the civil union law is discriminatory because it would require placing children with gay or unwed couples.

Chicago Tribune

Catholic Charities wants to continue its past practice of referring gay and unmarried couples to other agencies for foster care and adoption services.

Illinois’ civil unions law requires any charity that accepts state money to provide child-care services to treat people in civil unions as it would treat married couples. The state provides Catholic Charities $30 million annually for its services.

In April, the state Senate voted down a measure that would have allowed religious and faith-based groups to deny same-sex couples from adopting or fostering children.

Catholic Charities wants to be exempted from the law, and deny adoption and foster care services to gay couples, but Gov. Pat Quinn said the law granting same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples is staying put.

On Friday and Monday, the Department of Children and Family Services notified Catholic Charities organizations in four suburban or Downstate dioceses that the agency intended to terminate their foster-care and adoption contracts with the state because of the church’s unwillingness to abide by Illinois’ new civil unions law.

“They made a choice,” Quinn said of the dioceses. “They have a law in Illinois. It’s the civil unions law. I signed it into law. We’re not going back. Any organization that decides that because of the civil unions law that they won’t participate voluntarily in a program, that’s their choice.”

Chicago Sun-Times

Illinois’ civil unions law requires any charity that accepts state money to provide child-care services to treat people in civil unions as it would treat married couples. The state provides Catholic Charities $30 million annually for its services.

In April, the state Senate voted down a measure that would have allowed religious and faith-based groups to deny same-sex couples from adopting or fostering children.

The LGBT advocacy group said it polled staffers in each of the state's 102 county clerks offices, and found that gay and lesbian couples applying for civil unions were represented in 83 of them -- or just over 80 percent.

According to EQ Illinois, "many clerks offered stories about the excitement that permeated their offices, especially on the first day civil union licenses were offered."

Randy Hannig, the group's Director of Public Policy, said that he was certain the total number of Illinois residents now in civil unions is "drastically higher" than the 1,618 figure they arrived at. Hannig points out that many other Illinois couples who had entered into a marriage or civil union in other states prior to Illinois' law taking effect are now, in the eyes of the state, also legally recognized.

But for Illinois same-sex couples, a loophole in the state's tax code due to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, in a decision reached by the Illinois Department of Revenue, disallows same-sex couples in civil unions the ability to file joint returns which means taxation at the higher single rates, which EQ Illinois has labeled discriminatory.

It does provide official recognition from the state and many of the same rights that accompany opposite-sex marriage, including the right to inherit a partner's property and to make medical decisions for a partner.

President Barack Obama's former Chief of Staff told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that marriage equality is a "significant issue."

"I would hope that the state would move in that direction," Emanuel said. "Tremendous progress has been made across the country on a value statement and I think that's very important."

Watch:

Illinois became the 12th U.S. state to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples as a new civil unions law took effect on June 1.

Workers repair pride floats vandalized in Chicago.

General Manager Chuck Huser said the floats were fine when he left around 8 last night. But when he got in around 5 this morning, 51 floats -- every float at the facility, and all of them destined for Pride -- each had two tires slashed.

"This is catastrophic," Huser told the Times. "This has never happened before, and we have been doing this since 1989."

Huser said he thinks this was designed to sabotage the Pride Parade.

"99 percent of my being thinks it's a hate crime," he said.

Police said that the vandalism was not being treated as a hate crime. But Huser said he didn't know what else to call it.

Huser said that shortly before Noon CT, all but about 12 floats had been repaired by that time.

The parade was not delayed, although coordinator Richard Pfeiffer told ChicagoPride.com that the order of floats may change.