Long Term Same-Sex Couples Denied Marriage Licenses In Champaign County; Faux Heterosexual Couple’s Application Granted
Four same-sex couples from Champaign County in committed relationships were denied marriage licenses at the Champaign County Clerk’s Office Monday, May 17, 2004 while a faux heterosexual couple’s application for marriage was accepted. The couples were surrounded by 100 supporters who created a reception line for them after their marriage licenses were denied. The action, organized by the 85% Coalition, coincided with the date the Supreme Court of Massachusetts declared lesbians and gays could legally apply for marriage licenses in that state.
“He’s gay and we’re not in love, does that matter?” asked Aimee Rickman after she and her faux fiancé Adam, were granted a marriage license after they turned in a completed marriage application, showed their driver’s licenses and paid their $15.
“No,” was the reply from the staff member in the Clerk’s office.
Marriage licenses were denied to Kathy Spegal and Lynn Sprout, Ginny Sims and Janice Lyons, Steven Henderson and Mike Berkshire, and Dixie Spencer and Patty Cutright. All same-sex couples are in committed long-term relationships, hold joint bank accounts, share a joint residence, two couples share children together and one couple is caregivers for one of their parents.
Champaign County Clerk, Mark Shelden, denied these same-sex couples marriage license because “Illinois state statute requires you to be of a different gender,” he said.
The Champaign-Urbana same-sex couples suspected that they would be denied marriage licenses and decided to ask for them anyway to build a case for legal action against the County Clerk’s Office that could eventually lead to legal marriage for same-sex couples in Illinois.
When asked if he would grant same-sex marriage licenses if the courts found in favor of these same-sex couples, Mr. Shelden said “my gut reaction is not to obey the courts.” He said he would obey the law if the state legislature passes a law that allows same-sex couples in Illinois to marry.
Supporting the couples in their attempt to obtain marriage licenses were more than 100 people who wore t-shirts that said, “Marriage Rites For All,” “Straight Rights For Gay People,” and “’It’s We the People, Not We the Heterosexuals’” and carried signs with similar supportive messages.
Same-sex couples in Chicago also applied for marriage licenses. The actions in Champaign-Urbana and Chicago coincide with other actions across the country that were timed to occur in solidarity with the granting of marriage licenses in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to legally allow same-sex couples to marry and grant them licenses. No other state allows such marriages and most states have passed laws that define marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and deny recognition of same-sex marriage licenses granted in other states. The Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996 by the Clinton Administration, did the same thing.
The legal struggle for same-sex marriage rights has only just begun. History offers us insight in how minority groups gain their rights.
Exactly 50 years ago on May 17, 2004, the Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board decision that made racial segregation in the public schools illegal.
African Americans first challenged legal segregation in the public schools back in 1849. This attempt was unsuccessful. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the NAACP created a nationwide strategy to legally challenge public school segregation. All across the country, the NAACP organized parents and told them to enroll their children in white public schools. They knew their attempts would be unsuccessful and on that particular day they were. But now the NAACP had evidence of discrimination and could create a legal case that the only reason these children were denied their right to attend the white public schools was because of their race. The Brown v. Board case was not the single efforts of the Rev. Oliver Brown attempting to enroll his daughter, Linda, in the local white public school in Topeka, Kansas. Others in Topeka came before him. The Brown v. Board case combined similar legal challenges in four states and the District of Columbia and represented 200 plaintiffs in all. It took African Americans more than 100 years of legal challenges to overturn laws that allowed racial segregation in the public schools. Educational equity is an ongoing struggle today.
By applying for marriage licenses at the Champaign County Clerk’s Office the couples were engaging in a necessary step in the ongoing struggle for the legalization of gay marriage. Two of the four couples said that they would legal challenge their denial of a marriage license.
This action on behalf of the four same-sex couples was organized by the 85% Coalition, a grassroots direct action group based in Champaign-Urbana. For more information, email: kakranich@yahoo.com.