* Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy penned an op-ed for the Belleville News-Democrat…
I was raised in Belleville and still happily reside in Illinois. Over the last few decades, I’ve had the good fortune as a member of the band Wilco to play music in every state in the union and in countless other countries. In my travels, I’ve witnessed firsthand that gay and lesbian couples want to marry for the same reasons all of us do — to share a lifetime of commitment. I feel very strongly that everyone should be able to marry the person he or she loves and enjoy the dignity and respect that comes with that commitment.
By excluding same-sex couples from marriage, our state saddles them, their children and itself with second-class status. That is wrong, and it hurts Illinois families and businesses.
Nine other states have already extended the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples. I work and have friends in all those states, and I can say assuredly that it’s time for Illinois to join them. Waiting and sending the signal that we’re not open to and supportive of that community is a big mistake. The time is now.
I hope you’ll join me in calling on the Illinois General Assembly to give same-sex couples the freedom to marry by supporting SB 10.
Jeff Tweedy
Chicago
* From Rolling Stone…
Tweedy grew up in Belleville, an exurb of St. Louis in southwestern Illinois, where his first band Uncle Tupelo was based. The singer has spoken in favor of same-sex marraige before, teaming with Bob Mould and Minor Threat/Fugazi leader Ian MacKaye last year to oppose a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in North Carolina. The ban eventually passed.
SB10 was successfully passed through the Illinois State Senate last month, though the State House of Representatives hasn’t held its final vote on the measure. The Chicago Tribune notes the legislation recently gained approval in a House committee, but Speaker Michael Madigan estimates that the bill is around a dozen votes short of the necessary 60 to pass. If SB 10 successfully passes through the House, governor Pat Quinn has said he will sign the bill.
I asked the Speaker about this and Madigan’s count of 12 short includes only Democrats whom he believes are solidly in support. So, that 12 number isn’t completely accurate.
And as much as I love Wilco, I really doubt Tweedy’s support is gonna make much of a difference. Pretty much everybody with a significant hipster population is already on board, except some conservative Republicans with university towns, but they’re not switching anyway.
* Meanwhile, from American Family News…
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) annual “Day of Silence” aims to “create safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” Public schools students who participate in the national event remain silent throughout the school day “to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.”
But the Illinois Family Institute cites a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union on the topic that reads, “You DO have a right to participate in Day of Silence and other expressions of your opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day. You do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak.” […]
“The means by which [GLSEN seeks] to end bullying is to eradicate conservative moral beliefs about homosexuality or to make it socially impossible to express them,” [Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute] contends. “That’s what people need to understand. This isn’t centrally about bullying.”
I’m not sure what she’s talking about. From the other two ACLU points…
Your school is NOT required to “sponsor” Day of Silence. But Day of Silence is rarely a school-sponsored activity to begin with — it’s almost always an activity led by students. So don’t be confused - just because your school isn’t officially sponsoring or participating in Day of Silence doesn’t mean that you can’t participate.
Students who oppose Day of Silence DO have the right to express their views, too. Like you, they must do so in a civil, peaceful way and they only have a right to do so during noninstructional time. For example, they don’t have a right to skip school on Day of Silence without any consequences, just as you don’t have a right to skip school just because you don’t like what they think or say.
* Anyway, the IFI wants a walkout…
“The reason we’re asking this is every student absence costs schools money; for every student that’s absence, schools lose money,” the conservative [Higgins] explains. “And since administrations will not listen to reason on this topic, we have to hit them in the pocketbook.”
But, if the ACLU is correct, the Day of Silence thing is almost always a student-sponsored event. Why hurt the schools?
- Demoralized - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:09 pm:
Will not listen to reason? The IFI is hardly the pillar of reason. They have one agenda when it comes to gay people and that is to do all they can to make them second-class citizens. It’s organizational bigotry at its finest.
- Wensicia - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:45 pm:
I don’t get it. You want to punish schools that won’t submit to your demand that the “Day of Silence” be eliminated on campus? Because the silence will oppress your right to bigoted behavior that may lead to and include bullying, but not necessarily so?
You can’t make up stuff like this…
- qcexaminer - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:54 pm:
I have no idea if the ACLU is correct or not but I would like someone to explain how a “Day of Silence” will “create safer schools for all”.
Looks like Political Theatre 101 to me.
Rather than this idiocy, I think more people would benefit from Will Portman’s comment:
“We should think twice about using terms like ‘bigoted’ to describe the position of those opposed to same sex marriage or ‘immoral’ to describe the position of those in favor, and always cultivate humility in ourselves as we listen to others’ perspectives and share our own.”
This works better for me rather than some hokey Mime Day at high school.
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:00 pm:
There’s nothing moral about the belief that homosexuality is somehow wrong. But I don’t really care what they believe as long as they stop acting on their beliefs.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:02 pm:
I think the ACLU and IFI should find a nice quiet padded room and hash it out between themselves.
Or, better yet, let the kids work it out. That’s what school’s about, right?
As a father of three children with vocal opinions yet no means of supporting themselves, I heartily endorse their silence every day.
- Lil Squeezy - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:03 pm:
Groups like the IFI are stuck in this 2,000 year old game of telephone and they have been off since….oh I don’t know… hundreds of years before the crusades.
- Wensicia - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:11 pm:
By the way, this will be the fifth year our high school has allowed students to participate in the “Day of Silence”. They even sold T-shirts to be worn the day of the event last year. We’ve never had any problems or protests from the community.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:23 pm:
===So, that 12 number isn’t completely accurate.===
Good tip, and about what I expected. This would be more helpful if we knew which Democrats were still opposed or not “solidly” for it. I’d love to see the Speaker’s roll call on this to know who to target for persuasion. It could very well be that more HGOP votes are needed, but my instinct would be to try to flip the Dems first.
- Reo Symes, M.D. - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:31 pm:
Good for Tweedy.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:43 pm:
– It could very well be that more HGOP votes are needed, but my instinct would be to try to flip the Dems first.–
Are there any GOP votes now?
- reformer - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:04 pm:
I can’t think of any House GOP votes for marriage equality. All the House Republicans who voted for civil unions in late 2010 are gone now. (Beaubien, Bassi, Black, Coulson, Mulligan and Skip.) The rest voted NO. The new GOP members are generally more conservative than the moderates.
It would require them to change their minds big-time, and the risk the wrath of the Religious Right/IL Review in a primary.
- walkinfool - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:04 pm:
If MJM says they are 12 short when counting just likely Dem votes, that means it’s close overall. This kind of highly personal decision won’t be driven much by party positions — no matter how strongly the Oberweises of the world demand conformity.
- Easy - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:18 pm:
any word on where Son Volt is on same sex marriage?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:28 pm:
Easy, that as, by far, the wittiest “insider” comment of the month.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:40 pm:
===Are there any GOP votes now?===
Good question. There was one in the Senate, which should equal two in the House, but I doubt it. On my personal roll call, I have 0 HGOPs on it. Any Republican with the good sense to vote aye on gay marriage before the count hits 60 on the big board is a bonus.
Once the Dems get it to 60, assuming they can, I think you’ll see several HGOPs jump on and try to claim they were with it from the start. There aren’t many who want to be #60, but there are a lot who want to be #61.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:41 pm:
===On my personal roll call, I have 0 HGOPs on it===
Right now, I think there are two.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:51 pm:
Thanks Rich, good to know and good for those two. It takes some guts for an HGOP to be for this right now. It won’t take much guts to flip the switch to green after 60 lights up, but we’ll take the record anyway.
This bill may not get to 60, but if it does, it’ll end up closer to 70 or maybe a few more.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 4:00 pm:
===Once the Dems get it to 60, assuming they can, I think you’ll see several HGOPs jump on and try to claim they were with it from the start. There aren’t many who want to be #60, but there are a lot who want to be #61.===
Well said!
There is a fear that if it goes, and then fails at 55 or so with only 2 HGOP votes, that THAT, along with 1 in the Senate will be used to paint the party “intolerant as a whole”, so the HGOP better start hoping to be #61, #62, etc., or that MJM and Rep. Harris do not let this fail with sparse votes.
I know that is my fear for My Party.