Kelly Cassidy And Paula Basta, Two Democratic Lesbian Activists, Square Off In Tense Illinois Statehouse Race

When long-time Chicago lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist Kelly Cassidy was appointed last spring to the Illinois Statehouse of Representatives, a saga between rivals began.
Cassidy won the seat following a well-attended public meeting last April, where the 48th Ward Democratic committeewoman, Carol Ronen, chose her to fill a vacancy left by Harry Osterman -- who departed to join Chicago's city council. Despite Cassidy having the support of residents attending the meeting, her opponents quickly claimed that her success had more to do with clout within Chicago's "deep-pocketed political machine" than the will of the North Side district's voters. One of those who had vied for the spot was Paula Basta, also an out lesbian and a long-time LGBT activist.
Basta announced that same April day that she would attempt to unseat Cassidy the first opportunity she could. The contest will culminate in the Illinois Democratic primary on March 20.
Their contest may mark one of the first times two openly LGBT candidates have faced off for a state office -- a rare scenario likely to become more common as increasing numbers of gay and lesbian people run for public office. In 2010, a lesbian Democrat and a gay Republican competed for State Assembly in California.
Denis Dison, a spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group that works to elect LGBT elected officials, said two openly LGBT candidates running head-to-head is rare. In San Diego's mayor race, two of the major candidates currently running -- both Republicans -- are gay or lesbian.

In this case, both candidates are lesbian Democrats, with similar positions, passionately invested in the district and both are campaigning very hard -- Cassidy to be elected, rather than appointed, and Basta for redemption following last year's defeat. In the months that followed Basta's announcement, the race has become increasingly tense. Basta's campaign last month claimed that Cassidy allegedly was behind a phone survey whose questions included a charge that Basta was under federal investigation for conducing political work while on the clock at her day job a city position as the regional director of the Levy Senior Center, the Windy City Times reported.
Basta denies those allegations and said Cassidy's camp was just attempting to cook up a scandal.
"My only question is, Who would have been doing a poll like that? Who else would have been doing something like that?" Basta told The Huffington Post.
But Cassidy denies any prior knowledge of the alleged poll question and told HuffPost that "this time of year, people are polling on everything and include other races and issues in their polls."
"If I jumped up and down screaming every time someone asked some nasty question about me, I'd be doing nothing else," Cassidy said. "I have, instead, stayed very focused on being the best representative I can be and running the most positive race that I can."
Despite the recent phone survey dustup, the race has -- mostly -- avoided much in the way of juicy, "Chicago-style" politics. This is most likely the result of the fact that, on paper, it would be difficult to discern all that much of a difference between the two progressive Democrats' positions on key legislative issues facing the state.
Both women are in favor of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recent call for a statewide handgun registry -- a proposal that Governor Pat Quinn admitted will face "an uphill climb" toward passage. Cassidy told HuffPost she is co-sponsoring the registry legislation and has introduced companion legislation upgrading the penalty for giving or selling a weapon to a known street gang member with a weapon to a Class 1 felony.
"In my neighborhood, they're hunting young men with handguns. When one of those weapons is lost or stolen or used in a crime, having the information is invaluable to law enforcement," Cassidy said.
For her part, Basta said, "We see what happens with gun violence in our community," adding, "and if we can somehow curb that and prevent even one more person from being killed or hurt, that's what we need to do."
On Emanuel's Chicago speed cameras bill, signed into law by Gov. Quinn last week, both described the measure as one that would help protect public safety -- even as Cassidy admitted she was "initially very skeptical" of the bill. To Basta, the bill "makes sense."
And on LGBT issues, both are enthusiastic supporters. Basta was inducted in 2009 to the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame in recognition of her LGBT advocacy. Cassidy is now one of just three openly gay or lesbian state lawmakers -- the trio of which earlier this month introduced a bill that would bring marriage equality to Illinois.
Cassidy took her support of that bill a step further, introducing two other pieces of pro-LGBT legislation last week -- one that would add gender identity as a protected status under the state's hate crime law and another that would create the state's own Family and Medical Leave Act and would cover couples registered for civil unions (who are currently denied such benefits).
Presented with two candidates with comparable records on gay issues, a PAC representing Equality Illinois, the state's primary LGBT advocacy group, made the curious move to not endorse Basta, who served on its board for several years.
Instead, rather than endorsing both candidates as they had in two other state legislative races, the organization threw its support exclusively behind Cassidy.
All things being equal in a political race, Randy Hannig, Equality Illinois director of public policy explained, the organization tends to endorse the incumbent when this can serve as a means of thanking that person for aligning with the group's legislative agenda.
"I wish there was a way to have them both represent us in the House of Representatives but that is not the way the cookie crumbles," Hannig said, after adding that her group's endorsement was "nothing personal" against Basta.
When asked whether the non-endorsement from her former colleagues was disappointing, Basta said, "That process is their process."
On Tuesday, Basta not so subtly lashed out anew against her opponent with the unveiling of a 10-point ethics pledge which, among other proposals, calls for voters to be allowed to choose who fills a vacancy, such as Osterman's last year, "rather than letting party bosses make their own appointment."
Basta also hopes to institute "a sensible limit on the number of years" someone can hold any public office -- a point perhaps intended to call out veteran House Speaker Mike Madigan, whose statehouse tenure dates to 1970 and who, along with other influential Chicago political figures such as Mayor Emanuel, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle and Senate President John Cullerton, has also supported Cassidy in the race.
Candidate Basta described their support as an alliance with a system that is "broken," and said that electing her would bring "true independence to Springfield." "Speaker Madigan and Mayor Emanuel threw a birthday party for her in November," she said about Cassidy. "What else can you say?" Basta continued.
But Cassidy, who was a long-time assistant in the Cook County State's Attorney's office and also once ran Cullerton's district office, described such clout-heavy names as "the people who have seen me work for the last 20 years and seen me get things done and deliver results."
"I am the original nobody nobody sent," Cassidy added. "I don't shrink away from a fight and the fight I am engaged in is to make sure this district gets the best representation in Springfield it can."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/kelly-cassidy-paula-basta_n_1280197.html

Lesbian Lawyers First to Get Civil Union in Delaware

Lawyers Drewry Fennell and Lisa Goodman became the first same-sex couple to legally wed in Delaware, after a new civil union law went into effect on Sunday, according to theAssociated Press. The couple, together 14 years, were joined by Rev. Patricia Downing, director of Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington, in front of more than 400 people, including U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del., who delivered a sermon) and Lt. Gov. Matt Denns (who read a scripture). The crowd reportedly gave the women a standing ovation after the service was complete.

AP reported that Goodman helped lead Equality Delaware's fight for state's new law while Fennell heads the state's Criminal Justice Council. The New Castle County Clerk of the Peace, Ken Boulden Jr., had opened his office on a Sunday, New Year's day, so that eight couples — including the Goodman-Fennells — could get their licenses on the first day they were legally available. 

Boulden was a guest at the Goodman-Fennel wedding, telling CBS News, "It was a great way to begin the new year."

Delaware and Hawaii both join Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island in allowing civil unions, with new laws that went into effect on Sunday. Six states plus the District of Columbia now allow same-sex marriage.


http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/01/02/Lesbian_Lawyers_First_to_Marry_in_Deleware/

U.S. Census: Illinois shows big jump in reported same-sex couples

The statistics on same-sex couples in Illinois from the latest decennial census were unveiled Thursday and the count reveals a marked increase in the number of individuals who report that they live with a same-sex partner statewide.

Statewide, the 2010 census estimated that 32,469 gay and lesbian couples live in Illinois, which marks a 42 percent increase over the last decennial estimate in 2000. That increase was led principally by a 53 percent increase in the number of lesbian couple-led households ( 16,416, compared to 10,732 ) who now slightly outnumber the number of gay couple-led households who saw only a 32 percent increase ( 16,053 households, compared to 12,155 in 2010 ) .

NOTE: Please see related graphs from the Williams Institute at the link:www.windycitymediagroup.com/pdf/Census2010Snapshot_IL.pdf

The numbers also reveal that a large number of same-sex couples in Illinois have started their own families and are raising children, including 17 percent of self-reporting gay couples ( 2,723 ) and 29 percent of self-reporting lesbian couples ( 4,783 ) . All told, 7,506 same-sex couples in Illinois are estimated to be raising children under the age of 18 -- or 23 percent of the total population. The 2010 estimate of the number of same-sex couples raising children is relatively comparable to the 2000.

Gary Gates, a Williams Distinguished Scholar at the Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the UCLA law school, specializes in queer demography utilizing census data and said a number of factors are at play in the increased number of self-reporting same-sex couples over the last decade in Illinois, as well as the other 29 states ( plus Puerto Rico ) for which data has thus far been rolled out by the U.S. Census Bureau since June.

First, Gates notes, he said coupled, cohabitating gay and lesbian couples are likely more willing to accurately report their relationship status on the census and said it was also possible that broader social acceptance has "created conditions where more gay and lesbian people couple off and perhaps come out."

That said, he admitted some of the increase also had a lot to do with a heightened grassroots outreach campaign, on the bureau's part, which encouraged queer couples to accurately report about their lives.

At the county level, though Cook County still far and away leads the pack in terms of the number of same-sex couples overall ( 17,077 ) , it now calls home to a markedly smaller percentage of the state's total ( 53 percent according to the 2010 estimate, compared to 58 percent in 2000 ) . When Cook County's total is added to the five counties that border it ( DuPage, Lake, McHenry, Kane and Will ) , 71 percent of the state's same-sex couples are represented. In 2000, the same six counties were home to 75 percent of the state total.

Cook County, too, also saw among the lowest increases in the estimated number of same-sex couples of any county in the state between 2000 and 2010. While Cook's 17,077 self-reporting couples mark a 29 percent increase over 2000, several other counties saw much more drastic increases over the last decade including Williamson ( 135 percent ) , Lake ( 94 percent ) and McHenry ( 82 percent ) , to name a few examples.

Fewer gay couples ( only 13 percent ) in Cook County are raising children as compared to the state average, while the portion of lesbian couples in the county doing so ( 29 percent ) roughly matches the state average.

Of course, it should be noted that the census data excludes many individuals within the LGBT community, including those who are not in any sort of marriage, civil union or unmarried partnership, in addition to those couples who do not live togethers. The measure also likely excludes large segments of the bisexual and transgender communities in addition to single queer men and women.

More analysis of what the Illinois census data tells us about where in the state LGBT people live is forthcoming, in addition to an analysis of where, within the city of Chicago, large segments of the community can be found.

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=33195

Gay Marriage: Illinois gay and lesbian couples allowed civil unions

Illinois is now the 6th state to allow civil unions for gay couples in the United States.

After a long fight, many same-sex couples took to the court houses to get married and obtain their civil union licenses, a step towards gaining rights similar to straight married couples!

Many couples had been waiting for years as they saw states such as Vermont and cities such as Washington D.C. legalize the unions.

Some gay and lesbian couples feel they should wait until gay marriage is recognized at the national level to get married, discounting the already existing domestic partnerships and civil unions that exist in the other five states.

http://www.examiner.com/lgbt-relationships-in-national/gay-marriage-illinois-gay-and-lesbian-couples-allowed-civil-unions