Group files to put anti-marriage referendum on ballot
Group files to put anti-marriage referendum on ballot
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
By Gary Barlow
Staff writer
An anti-gay group filed petitions May 8 in Springfield seeking an advisory referendum on the November Illinois election ballot that would recommend that the state’s General Assembly pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
Protect Marriage Illinois, led by the director of the right-wing Illinois Family Institute, claimed it submitted more than 345,000 signatures of registered voters calling for the referendum on petitions presented to the Illinois Board of Elections. State law requires 283,111 valid signatures for the referendum drive to be successful.
“The first step is to see what the Board of Elections finds,” said gay advocate Rick Garcia, of Equality Illinois.
Garcia said the Board would go through the petitions and could stop the referendum effort by ruling that too many of the signatures submitted are invalid. Experts on such referendum drives generally recommend far more signatures than PMI submitted because signature collectors are prone to get a high number of signatures from people who aren’t registered to vote or submit incorrect registration information.
When the IFI announced the referendum drive, its leader said the group would submit more than 500,000 signatures.
“This is far less than they were aiming for,” Garcia said after PMI filed its petitions.
If the Board of Elections OKs the petitions, Garcia said, a coalition of groups opposing the referendum, operating as the Fair Illinois Committee, plans a volunteer effort to go over the petitions one signature at a time.
“We are going to look at every signature to make sure each one is valid,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the coalition would set up a volunteer headquarters with computer stations in Lakeview, with a likely starting date of May 13.
“Anyone can do it,” he said of the effort to scrutinize the anti-gay marriage petitions. “We’ll give a short computer training session on it, and volunteers will be making sure which signatures are legal and which ones are not.”
The coalition would have until mid-July to challenge PMI’s signatures.
Garcia characterized the anti-gay effort as more about raising money and building a right-wing political base in Illinois than protecting marriage, and other gay activists agreed.
“It’s no accident that the IFI is the same group which partnered closely with the anti-immigrant, anti-gay campaigns of failed gubernatorial and senatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, and were just about the only people who didn’t jump ship from the abysmal Alan Keyes senatorial campaign, which lost in record fashion a few years ago,” said Bob Schwartz, of the Gay Liberation Network.
Schwartz said GLN members would work with Fair Illinois to challenge PMI’s petitions.
“A group which regularly lies about the lives of gay peopleÉshouldn’t be trusted to tell the truth about its petition campaign,” Schwartz said.
The petition drive appeared to be faltering until a few weeks ago, when it received a boost from the Rev. James Meeks, an anti-gay state senator and pastor of a South Side mega-church who’s threatening to run for governor as an independent. The IFI’s anti-gay leader, Peter LaBarbera, praised Meeks April 23 for holding a petition drive at his 20,000-member church. Members of Meeks’ church also reportedly circulated petitions for the right-wing group.
A new Peter D. Hart national poll released last week showed that a national constitutional amendment banning gay marriage ranked at the bottom of voters’ concerns, mirroring the results of a poll of Illinois voters Equality commissioned last year.
In that poll, conducted by the Glengariff Group, about 70 percent of Illinois voters, including majorities in every region of the state, opposed amending the Illinois Constitution to ban gay marriage.
All of Illinois’ statewide elected officials, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and his Republican opponent in the November election, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, also oppose such an amendment.
VOLUNTEER
Bob Schwartz of the Gay Liberation Network (left) plans to help The Fair Illinois Committee fight an anti-gay marriage referendum. To volunteer and/or contribute, contact the Fair Illinois Committee, 3712 N. Broadway #418, Chicago, IL 60613. The committee can be reached by phone at (773) 477-7173 or by email at volunteer@eqil.org.
—G.B
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
By Gary Barlow
Staff writer
An anti-gay group filed petitions May 8 in Springfield seeking an advisory referendum on the November Illinois election ballot that would recommend that the state’s General Assembly pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
Protect Marriage Illinois, led by the director of the right-wing Illinois Family Institute, claimed it submitted more than 345,000 signatures of registered voters calling for the referendum on petitions presented to the Illinois Board of Elections. State law requires 283,111 valid signatures for the referendum drive to be successful.
“The first step is to see what the Board of Elections finds,” said gay advocate Rick Garcia, of Equality Illinois.
Garcia said the Board would go through the petitions and could stop the referendum effort by ruling that too many of the signatures submitted are invalid. Experts on such referendum drives generally recommend far more signatures than PMI submitted because signature collectors are prone to get a high number of signatures from people who aren’t registered to vote or submit incorrect registration information.
When the IFI announced the referendum drive, its leader said the group would submit more than 500,000 signatures.
“This is far less than they were aiming for,” Garcia said after PMI filed its petitions.
If the Board of Elections OKs the petitions, Garcia said, a coalition of groups opposing the referendum, operating as the Fair Illinois Committee, plans a volunteer effort to go over the petitions one signature at a time.
“We are going to look at every signature to make sure each one is valid,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the coalition would set up a volunteer headquarters with computer stations in Lakeview, with a likely starting date of May 13.
“Anyone can do it,” he said of the effort to scrutinize the anti-gay marriage petitions. “We’ll give a short computer training session on it, and volunteers will be making sure which signatures are legal and which ones are not.”
The coalition would have until mid-July to challenge PMI’s signatures.
Garcia characterized the anti-gay effort as more about raising money and building a right-wing political base in Illinois than protecting marriage, and other gay activists agreed.
“It’s no accident that the IFI is the same group which partnered closely with the anti-immigrant, anti-gay campaigns of failed gubernatorial and senatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, and were just about the only people who didn’t jump ship from the abysmal Alan Keyes senatorial campaign, which lost in record fashion a few years ago,” said Bob Schwartz, of the Gay Liberation Network.
Schwartz said GLN members would work with Fair Illinois to challenge PMI’s petitions.
“A group which regularly lies about the lives of gay peopleÉshouldn’t be trusted to tell the truth about its petition campaign,” Schwartz said.
The petition drive appeared to be faltering until a few weeks ago, when it received a boost from the Rev. James Meeks, an anti-gay state senator and pastor of a South Side mega-church who’s threatening to run for governor as an independent. The IFI’s anti-gay leader, Peter LaBarbera, praised Meeks April 23 for holding a petition drive at his 20,000-member church. Members of Meeks’ church also reportedly circulated petitions for the right-wing group.
A new Peter D. Hart national poll released last week showed that a national constitutional amendment banning gay marriage ranked at the bottom of voters’ concerns, mirroring the results of a poll of Illinois voters Equality commissioned last year.
In that poll, conducted by the Glengariff Group, about 70 percent of Illinois voters, including majorities in every region of the state, opposed amending the Illinois Constitution to ban gay marriage.
All of Illinois’ statewide elected officials, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and his Republican opponent in the November election, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, also oppose such an amendment.
VOLUNTEER
Bob Schwartz of the Gay Liberation Network (left) plans to help The Fair Illinois Committee fight an anti-gay marriage referendum. To volunteer and/or contribute, contact the Fair Illinois Committee, 3712 N. Broadway #418, Chicago, IL 60613. The committee can be reached by phone at (773) 477-7173 or by email at volunteer@eqil.org.
—G.B
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