Too bad this has taken so long

While celebrated as a historic step forward for gay rights in Illinois, the
new civil union bill that awaits Gov. Pat Quinn's signature also offers
opportunities for heterosexual couples who don't want to wed but seek many of
the legal protections of marriage.

Granted, this is likely to
be a narrow swath of the population, but those who drafted the law felt it
important to be inclusive, particularly given that the bill's intent was to open
up rights that had long been denied to a demographic group.

"It just
seemed wrong to me to write a law that would be discriminatory," said state Rep.
Greg Harris, D- Chicago, the bill's chief sponsor in the House.

He said
some senior citizens lobbied for the bill. Seniors with survivor's benefits from
Social Security or a pension could lose that income if they remarry. A civil
union allows them to keep that benefit while providing the same state-level
rights as a marriage.

"If you go to a senior building, you'll find a lot
of people who face this dilemma," Harris said. "They may be the largest single
group of beneficiaries by number."

In a 2009 article in Elder Law
Journal, Chicago attorney John Schleppenbach wrote that Illinois would be nearly
unique if it offered civil unions to straight couples, making the bill of "vital
importance" to seniors who risked losing benefits by getting married.

Andrew Koppelman, a professor of law and political science at
Northwestern University, said civil unions also provide straight couples with an
option that gives them legal support but doesn't carry the title of "marriage."

"There are some who think marriage is an anachronistic and patriarchal
institution," he said. "It's got this administrative dimension, which provides
for hospital visitation rights and inheritance rights and that sort of thing,
and then also it includes this symbolic status. Well, there are some people who
like the symbolic status and some people who don't."

Courtney Greve,
spokeswoman for Cook County Clerk David Orr, said the clerk's office gets weekly
calls from heterosexual couples who don't want to marry but are interested in
some sort of domestic partnership. Some, she said, are young couples facing a
loss of health insurance, who want to wait to get married until they can plan a
more elaborate wedding. The county's domestic partnership registry is not open
to heterosexual couples.

Assuming the governor signs the bill as he has
promised, civil unions can begin in June. Greve said the process for getting a
civil union will be nearly identical to obtaining a marriage license. It will
not require applicants — straight or gay — to sign affidavits stating that they
live together.

Attorneys in Illinois and other states that currently
have or formerly had civil unions agree there is little chance of couples who
aren't in a committed relationship forming civil unions purely for convenience.

"In New Jersey, it's not any easier to get out of a civil union than it
is to get out of a marriage," said Stephen Hyland, an attorney who served on New
Jersey's Civil Union Review Commission after the state opened up civil unions
for same-sex couples in 2007. "The obligations for dissolving a civil union are
exactly the same as in dissolving a marriage. You would see a potential for
alimony, division of property, everything."

While no civil union
provides a couple with federal rights — such as Social Security survivor's
benefits or the ability to file joint tax returns — Illinois' civil union bill
gives the couple access to all state-level marriage rights, including health
care benefits from any company that offers a spousal plan.

This has been
a dicey subject in the past for unmarried heterosexual couples.

Google
Inc., for example, offered reimbursement for health insurance costs this year
only to unmarried couples who were gay or lesbian, arguing that straight couples
had the option of getting married. On the other hand, the federal government has
made unmarried straight couples eligible for some benefits, including paid sick
leave related to caring for their partners.

In 1999, a female clerk sued
the Chicago Board of Education for allegedly discriminating against her and her
male partner of 27 years by not providing medical and dental benefits when they
were available to same-sex couples. A federal judge dismissed her claim of
"reverse discrimination," ruling that the school district was not obligated to
extend the benefits to unmarried straight couples.

By including
heterosexual couples, the law also provides an avenue for straight couples to
support gay rights.

"I've heard of couples saying, 'We won't get married
until our gay and lesbian loved ones can also get married,'" said Jennifer
Brown, a professor of law at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, which had a
civil union law until same-sex marriage was legalized in 2008.

"I've
heard of couples traveling to states where marriage is available to both
same-sex and different-sex couples and having their weddings in that state as a
show of solidarity," Brown said. "In Illinois, there's now this additional
option for people, which would be to opt for a civil union instead of marriage."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-heterosexuals-civil-unions-12020101202,0,571376.story