Glenn Amoroso and Keith Charbonneau were ready to pay $30 for a marriage license Thursday. But when their request at the marriage-license bureau in the Cook County Building was denied, they and hundreds of others took to the streets of Chicago, giving voice to one side of the raging debate over same-sex marriages.
Toting signs and shouting support for same-sex couples, the gay-marriage advocates squared off with a group of picketers opposing same-sex marriage.
Police made one arrest, carting away Deborah Mell, the 35-year-old daughter of Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).
“I’m proud of my daughter,” the alderman said. “I’m proud that when she has something she believes in, she stands up for it.”
Deborah Mell, who ran past police lines and into Washington Street, was tackled and handcuffed by two officers and put in the back of a police truck. She was charged with the misdemeanor of simple battery, and a court date was set for April 28, said Chicago Police Department spokesman Pat Camden.
Nationally, the gay-marriage issue continued to stew. At least 100 couples lined up in Portland, Ore., for marriage licenses that were issued for a second day. The mayor of New Platz., N.Y., said he will continue to conduct same-sex weddings even though he has been criminally charged. And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he is worried the “wildfire” of same-sex marriages will spread throughout the country if Congress fails to pass a constitutional amendment banning the weddings.
Like Amoroso and Charbonneau, dozens of same-sex couples in New York applied for marriage licenses and were denied in the country’s most populous city and the suburb of Nyack.
The Chicago rally began about noon in front of the Cook County Building with activists holding signs including ones that said “Jesus said love thy brother.” North Clark Street became an ideological divide as about 50 anti-gay marriage activists read from bibles over bullhorns and condemned homosexuality from the Daley Center Plaza across the street.
“This is sin in the eyes of God,” said Rev. Shawn Cummings, a member of the Oakdale Covenant Church.
After several gay couples shared with the crowd the emotional and fiscal reasons they wanted to marry, the gay-rights advocates chanted while marching into the Cook County Building’s marriage-license bureau.
Amoroso, 42, and Charbonneau, 32, asked for a marriage-license application. Instead, they were told same-sex marriages are illegal in the state of Illinois and were handed a letter from Cook County Clerk David Orr expressing his position on gay marriages and pledging support for the cause.
Amoroso said he and his partner would have saved $880 last year if they were able to file a joint tax return. They also have had to write letters and hire attorneys to ensure that they can help each other in an emergency.
“We just want the same things heterosexuals get just by putting two signatures on a piece of paper,” he said.
Wanting more than a photocopied letter from Orr, the activists marched to the Cook County Administration Building nearby on West Washington Street and called for the county clerk to come out and address the crowd.
Orr offered to meet with a group of 10 protesters in his office, but the gay-rights activists declined, saying they wanted him to meet with all his constituents, organizer Andy Thayer said.
