All but married
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Tadlock has since remarried. She and her partner, Kae Helstrom, both of Springfield, traveled to Iowa last June to take advantage of that state’s same-sex marriage law. Because Illinois’ new law will recognize outof-state relationships similar to its civil unions, Tadlock’s marriage should be automatically recognized in their home state starting in June, and the state rights of any heterosexual couple should be automatically applied to their relationship. Tadlock is wondering if she’ll be allowed to return the money she previously removed from the Teacher’s Retirement System so that Helstrom has the opportunity to benefit as any married spouse would.
While Illinois’ civil union law has solved a number of problems for same-sex couples, the LGBT community still faces several issues in terms of discrimination that won’t be solved by civil unions. Tadlock, for instance, is now in an employment dispute that started after she announced her marriage to Helstrom in the newspaper. In the announcement, Tadlock listed Benedictine University, a Catholic school, as her employer. According to the State Journal- Register, the university asked Tadlock to resign after she publicly announced her gay marriage. When Tadlock refused, the university reassigned her to a position for which she says she wasn’t qualified. The university says that, by turning down the new position, Tadlock resigned, but Tadlock says she was fired. Either way, the university backs its actions by citing an inconsistency between Tadlock’s public announcement and the Catholic faith. Religious organizations in many ways are exempt from samesex non-discrimination laws, including Illinois’ civil union measure.
For Frain, one of the big issues is lack of federal recognition. “What gets my goat is the issue of Social Security,” she says, explaining that a friend of hers, who had been in a same-sex relationship for more than 20 years before her partner died, was financially devastated after losing her partner because she had zero access to the federal system into which her partner had been required to pay for years. “On the other hand, if you’re married two or three years [as a heterosexual couple], you can collect on somebody’s Social Security. That doesn’t seem fair to me.”
Jenkins says civil unions in Illinois is not enough, but adds that same-sex couples in Illinois have as much equality as possible without federal action. “If you’re talking about just what Illinois has done, I was pretty pleasantly surprised at the depth of the legislation,” she says. “I thought it was going to be a political pat on the head, and it turned out to be much more significant than that.” She says actual application of the law could highlight any possible flaws but adds, “I think Illinois did a pretty damn good job. … As far as the federal level goes, that’s something completely different.”
Though getting equality on the federal level isn’t an option with DOMA in place, Buff Carmichael says he thinks that full equality is just around the corner. “It’s like dominos falling,” he says, explaining that decades ago gay television characters would have been unheard of but gradually they’ve become a familiar sight, as have gay and lesbian entertainers and politicians. “It’s becoming more commonplace, and the more commonplace it becomes, the more comfortable it becomes,” he says.
Contact Rachel Wells at [email protected].
