By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Another effort to pass an anti-gay marriage referendum in Illinois failed May 5 when organizers didn’t meet the deadline for submitting petitions to put the question on the November election ballot.

The organizers had pledged to submit more than 300,000 signatures to put the question on the ballot. If they had, and a majority of voters had voted yes, Illinois legislators would have been pressured to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

In 2006, anti-gay groups mounted a similar effort but managed to gain enough signatures to submit them to the Illinois Board of Elections. The question never made it past that stage, though. Gay groups such as Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, PFLAG and the Gay Liberation Network, together with allied groups such as the ACLU, created FAIR Illinois to challenge the petitions, and election officials ruled that there were enough questionable signatures to disqualify the petitions.

This time, though, the anti-gay groups were even less well organized. Some of the heavy hitters who pushed the anti-gay drive in 2006 in an effort to boost right-wing turnout for political races weren’t around this time to support Protect Marriage Illinois, the anti-gay group that led the referendum effort this year.

The political director of Equality Illinois, Rick Garcia, said he and others breathed sighs of relief late May 5 when they realized PMI wasn’t going to meet the state’s petition deadline.

“We all just saved a lot of money—our whole community saved hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Garcia said. “Us not having to deal with challenging those petitions—all of that money can go into our legislative efforts.”

Garcia said although he was relieved, he wasn’t surprised by the turn of events. In addition to not having right-wing candidates pushing the issue this time around, he knew that PMI’s general support had ebbed.

“They just don’t have the support they need for this,” Garcia said. “And frankly, it’s not the will of the people of Illinois. It’s not even on people’s radar in this state.”

Even at their peak, Garcia said—around 2005 and 2006—anti-gay groups weren’t able to generate anything close to majority support for their positions in Illinois.

“They’re not able to get anything done here,” Garcia said. “We are the Land of Lincoln. Most Illinoisans just want to be left alone and want their neighbors to be left alone.”

The anti-gay groups have also been unable to count on the support of the state’s Republican Party, something that’s aided the passage of anti-gay marriage amendments in other states.

“In Illinois we’ve never had a viable right wing of the Republican Party,” Garcia said. “Our Republican Party has been moderate. …For 20 years now we’ve made a point of working with Republicans. So when every other state was passing an anti-gay amendment, we knew who to talk to in the Republican Party so that here you didn’t have a political party to push this issue.”

The anti-gay marriage interests can try again to put the question on the ballot in 2010, but Garcia hopes Illinois is much further along by then. This legislative session, Equality Illinois is working to help Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) pass a bill providing for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

“I think we’re further along than I had anticipated,” Garcia said, adding that while marriage is still a tough issue to push in Springfield, civil unions should pass “sooner, rather than later.”

“These people tried to scare the voters by raising all kinds of fears about ‘homosexual relationships,’ and people said, ‘Who cares?’” Garcia said. “I think that bodes really well for us.”

He said people were in discussions and were prepared to rejuvenate FAIR Illinois to fight the referendum had it been necessary. And, he added, Equality and others plan to remain ready to fight off any effort that anti-gay forces try to mount.

“They’re weak here in Illinois but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down and all start planning June weddings. That’s not going to happen,” Garcia said. “But it does mean that our road isn’t going to be as hard as it will be in, say, Michigan or Indiana or Missouri. We’re a little further along, I think.”