Illinois

Chicago pride got off to a rough start on Sunday, when it was discovered that sometime in the late hours of Saturday night or the early hours of Sunday morning, a person or persons slashed the tires on 51 floats destined for the city's 42nd Annual Pride Parade. [ Read more → ]

The Chicago Cubs on Monday released their "It Gets Better" video, becoming the second professional sports team to participate in the campaign aimed at providing encouragement for LGBT youth struggling with adversity and intolerance. [ Read more → ]

A new poll shows us neck-and-neck in Minnesota, with a vote on marriage still a year off. There's just two weeks left to pass marriage in New York, but a Senate bill still hasn't even been introduced yet. Illinois launched civil unions this week as Rhode Island debated doing the same. And a Michigan Republican can't tell the difference between gay couples and child abusers. [ Read more → ]

The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox have announced that they will each produce an online video for the “It Gets Better Project,” an anti-bullying project aimed at helping LGBT youth struggling with adversity and intolerance. [ Read more → ]

Catholic Charities of Peoria and Joliet, Illinois, following the lead of the Rockford Diocese, announced Friday that they will discontinue adoption and foster care programs because of the state's civil unions law that took effect June 1. [ Read more → ]

Illinois became the 12th U.S. state to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples as a new civil unions law took effect on Wednesday. [ Read more → ]

This week: The chaos at Equality Maryland has gotten so bad, the organization may have to shut down altogether, and time's nearly run out to pass a marriage bill in New York. [ Read more → ]

The Rockford, Ill., Catholic Diocese announced Thursday that it would discontinue adoption and foster care programs rather than be forced to serve same-sex or unmarried opposite-sex couples under the state's new civil unions law. [ Read more → ]

One of the largest adoption and foster care services in Illinois has threatened to drop those services if it is forced to place children with gay and lesbian couples, a move that could affect thousands of children. [ Read more → ]

A former employee of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition has filed a wrongful termination and discrimination complaint against the civil rights leader, alleging he was harassed and eventually fired because he was gay. [ Read more → ]

The Illinois Senate has voted down a controversial measure that would have allowed religious and faith-based groups deny same-sex couples from adopting or fostering children. [ Read more → ]

A federal appeals court in Illinois has ruled that Walmart Stores did not violate an employee's civil rights when it fired her for making anti-gay comments towards a lesbian co-worker at a store in Joliet, Ill. [ Read more → ]

A west-central Illinois county sheriff has come under fire after making a derogatory post on Facebook, in which he referred to a co-worker as a "little fag jew boy." [ Read more → ]

Two New Hampshire legislators have introduced bills to repeal the state’s marriage equality law, even though Republican leaders said that such a repeal is not a party priority in 2011. And several other states saw legislative moves toward or away from equality in the past week. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO — Illinois became the 12th U.S. state on Monday to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples. Gov. Pat Quinn drew cheers from a crowd of more than 1,000 people who turned out to witness him sign bill legalizing civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. [ Read more → ]

2011 will likely see a number of battles state by state across the country. Three states plus the District of Columbia are facing the prospect of losing marriage equality, an additional seven states could start the process of amending their state constitutions to ban marriage equality, five could gain marriage equality. [ Read more → ]

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) said Friday that he will delay signing until next year the recently passed bill granting civil unions to Illinois residents. [ Read more → ]

The Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act on Wednesday, establishing legal protections for same-sex couples across the state. [ Read more → ]

School officials have decided not to take disciplinary action against three high school students in suburban Chicago who attended classes wearing "straight pride" t-shirts earlier this week during the school's "ally week" aimed at raising awareness to anti-gay bullying and harassment. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Laine Tadlock, director of the education program at Benedictine University in Springfield, Ill., has lost her job -- not because she is gay, and not because she recently married her partner, but because her wedding announcement was posted in the local newspaper. [ Read more → ]