Three more counties to begin issuing same-sex ‘marriage’ licenses before legally allowed in Illinois
SPRINGFIELD, IL , March 6, 2014 – At the urging of the state attorney general, clerks in three Illinois counties have announced they will begin issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples months before they are allowed to by law. The state may not issue legal marriage certificates to same-sex couples until June 1 under a new law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn. But an Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge , Sharon Johnson Coleman, ruled on February 21 that Cook County could begin legally recognizing gay unions at once , because homosexuals had “already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry.” Illinois State Attorney General Lisa Madigan Although the ruling applied only to Cook County, State Attorney General Lisa Madigan wrote a letter encouraging all county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at once. Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten, a Republican, announced that he will comply, saying what is true for one county must be