Putting it to a vote
The Rainbow Sash Movement (LGBT Roman Catholics), like many other freedom-loving people in Illinois and around the nation, feel frustrated and angry over what happened in Springfield last week concerning the issue of gay marriage. Opposition from Catholic and conservative African-American church groups, led by Cardinal Francis George, outmaneuvered state Rep. Greg Harris, causing him to rise on the floor and tearfully announce that he would not call the bill—and there wasn't enough support after all.
We must challenge those in our political leadership to reflect on how this could have happened. Harris promised a vote on this matter, with the support of House Speaker Michael Madigan. Why not call for vote so we can see who supports us and who does not? While we understand the legislation will be reintroduced in the next legislature, we must question how one can get a hold of the political realities of the situation without a vote.
In our opinion, this community is owed full disclosure over this matter, and those responsible for not calling for a vote should be held accountable for their political decision making. Lacking full disclosure, such political leadership will only be drawn into question among reasonable people in both the LGBT community and among our allies.
The Rainbow Sash Movement is also calling for the community to come out and support our efforts to respond to Cardinal Francis George's platform of bigotry to be held in Boystown. His homophobic attacks against our community are responsible for this recent set back on Gay Marriage. Stand with us outside the Church as we say no to his bigotry from the pulpit of Our Lady of Mt Carmel on Sunday, June 16, at 7 p.m. Bigotry promoted from the pulpit cannot go unchallenged especially when it is held in our community.
Bill O'Connor
Rainbow Sash Movement
Promises, promises
Some people keep saying state Rep. Greg Harris broke a promise to call the marriage bill for a vote whether it would pass or not. I don't recall any such promise.
Windy City Times quoted him May 21 as saying, "When I put it up on the board, it's going to go up to win," and then added the one-word quote "absolutely" to cite him as saying either that he was "'absolutely' ready to call for" a vote by May 31 or would "'absolutely' call for" a vote by then. In its own further words, the paper then summarized his quotes as saying that the bill "will pass by the end of session," yet reported that he "declined to offer a specific date for the vote or a count on the roll call."
Meanwhile, advocacy groups wanted him to call it for a vote regardless, supposedly in order to tell who the opponents and proponents were, since for some reason their own lobbying efforts hadn't been able to tell.
To me, unless more is cited, this seems a very thin basis for saying Harris broke a promise and seems only to indicate that people need to do a better lobbying job and get a better handle on how the legislature works—including the fact that the bill isn't dead yet.
As for personal attacks on Tracy Baim after her decades of hard work in helping build community: I can disagree with her but still respect her. We need to resist the propensity to go over the top when trying to make valid points. Not only does it make the points less persuasive, not only does it breed conflict instead of understanding, but it hurts individuals and betokens (misleadingly in many cases) a most unbecoming viciousness. We've had far too much of that already.
William B. Kelley
Chicago
Kindness and weakness
To the Editor:
You shouldn't mistake kindness for weakness—quite apropos when Hitler helped Chamberlain on with his coat—but state Rep. Greg Harris's capitulation to his homophobic Democratic colleagues May 31 proved that, at times, kindness and weakness are one and the same.
To be fair, our community has long had problems being truly proud, despite waving the banner of "Pride," Orwellian-speak for "I'm ashamed to have 'Gay' and 'Lesbian' in the name of my festival."
While Chicago's Cardinal George has been railing against this bill, daring the IRS to touch him, the Center on Halsted forbad an elderly man at a SAGE lunch from making an announcement concerning a petition drive to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Chicago Archdiocese because, heaven forefend, it might upset the IRS.
I have been fighting for marriage equality since 1975. I have spent more time in jail for marriage equality than any other male (third to two women who spent almost a year in prison). I have also organized and attended more marriage-equality demonstrations than anyone in the world. In 2009, at a demonstration called when we lost in Maine, I burned a Bible in frustration. For this, I was "forbidden" by Join the Impact to ever attend another demonstration. I started to fight this, but after a subsequent victory assured me that Maine was not the Gettysburg I feared it was, I decided instead to take a long needed rest, convinced that the apologetic and spineless Chicago "activists" could not stop the inexorable course of history. In the worst case, they would render Illinois a national embarrassment. On May 31, that is exactly what happened.
Jeff Graubart
Chicago
