***PLEASE FORWARD AND POST WIDELY***

Marriage Rights are Civil Rights:
Equal Marriage NOW! to continue with plans to demand marriage licenses at the Cook County Marriage License Bureau, Thursday, March 4 at noon
118 N. CLARK
info: www.equalmarriagenow.org
voicemail: 773-243-2576

Cook County Clerk David Orr said on Tuesday, March 2
that he will stand by the Illinois law defining
marriage as a union between a man and a woman and deny
licenses to same-sex couples. Equal Marriage NOW! is
saddened to hear that he is refusing to stand up to a
bigoted law, but will continue with plans to go to the
Cook County marriage license bureau on Thursday, March
4 at noon where same-sex couples will attempt to gain
access to the more than 1,000 rights and benefits only
available through civil marriage licenses.

Less than a week ago, in response to Mayor Daley’s
statement that he has "no problem" with same-sex
marriages, David Orr stated, "I’m fed up with people
being discriminated against because of their sexual
orientation." We believe that Mr. Orr should act in
accordance with his words against discrimination.

This is not the first time in U.S. history when
bigoted laws have been challenged by civil rights
activists. In 1960, when four Black college students
sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North
Carolina—where it was illegal to serve Blacks—they
were refused service. Through actions like these
across the South, Jim Crow segregation laws were
struck down. We stand in the tradition of those
activists in demanding that civil rights cease to be
denied to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
people of Illinois.