NOM Battles Illinois Civil Unions

As the Illinois legislature prepares to "fast track" a bill to legalize civil unions, NOM has launched a campaign urging their followers to deluge state reps with complaints. Here's an excerpt from their sample letter.

Same-sex marriage advocates have made clear time and again that civil unions are not a compromise, but rather a stepping stone to full same-sex marriage recognition. Today they argue for civil unions in the name of equality -- but tomorrow they will argue that only bigotry and prejudice can support this "separate but equal" arrangement. It's already happened in California and Connecticut, where the civil unions bill was used to persuade courts that the state no longer had any interest in protecting marriage. The American people have spoken clearly time and again. Every time they've had the chance to vote on marriage -- 31 times in a row -- they've rejected the same-sex marriage agenda in favor of marriage as the union of a husband and wife. It's time the people of Illinois had the same opportunity to be heard. Senate Bill 1716 is a trojan horse -- presented as a compromise, but it is intentionally unsustainable and part of a larger attempt to force same-sex marriage on the state. I urge you to vote no.

The Human Rights Campaign responds via press release.

“NOM’s opposition to civil unions for gay and lesbian couples shows how far out of the mainstream it truly is,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “This new battleground plainly reveals NOM's deep-seated enmity toward the LGBT community, with no regard to public support." Two thirds of Illinois voters, according to an October 2010 poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, support either civil unions or marriage equality. A Chicago Tribune poll registered 57 percent of Illinoisans approve of civil unions, compared to 32 percent who disapprove.