The Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on LGBT Issues passed two resolutions submitted by Council member Robert Castillo Jan. 21, one on same-sex marriage, another a letter to President Bush.
The Bush letter condemned the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which the president mentioned in his State of the Union Address. ‘We are on record as opposing any effort to amend the United States Constitution to codify any one religious view of civil marriage. Such an amendment is an attack on the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and their families. In addition, the Federal Marriage Amendment is a threat to the religious freedom of churches that do recognize same-sex unions and violates the separation of church-state guaranteed by the First Amendment … . In addition, it takes away a state’s right to decide the issue for itself. The proposed amendment also marks one of the few times in which the Constitution would be amended to limit or take away the rights of a group in society and as such sets a dangerous precedent in a nation that extols the virtues of freedom to the world, yet wishes to set limits on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.’
The other measure passed was a resolution on same-sex marriage opposing amending both the Illinois Constitution and the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.