State Rep. Greg Harris (pictured), D-Chicago, joined senior citizens as well as Illinois General Assembly co-sponsors at a May 14 press conference at the State Capitol. The purpose of the gathering was to explain the benefits of how legislation establishing civil unions would give the state’s widows and widowers legal rights to care for their loved ones without forcing them to lose certain benefits.
During the conference, Harris said, ‘today, we stand here with a great opportunity to help many seniors throughout the state. The legislation shows that there is more to civil unions than just benefits for same-sex couples.’
According to Harris, House Bill 1826 (known as the civil-union bill) would help many seniors. ‘Illinois is one of the few states that would allow opposite-sex couples to participate in civil unions,’ Harris told Windy City Times. ‘So seniors—of which there are 1.8 million over the age of 65 in Illinois—will certainly benefit. … Seniors would have to look at their own situations, but if widows and widowers remarry, they stand to lose their pensions and Social Security benefits. So it puts a lot of people—especially those on fixed incomes—in a really terrible bind of having to choose between commitment to their partners and having enough money to live. And at this point and time, they also have no healthcare rights, they have no hospital visitation rights, they don’t have the right to share a nursing home—they don’t even have the right to make decisions about their partners’ remains.’
As for the status of the bill, Harris said, ‘We still need a couple more votes to pass it. On an issue like this, in which feelings run high, the last couple votes are always the hardest to get. … People look at the issue within the prism of their districts, so people looking at this now are taking a close, hard look at each and every aspect of it.’ He added that the vote is a ‘bipartisan effort.’