Ill. State Rep Marries Partner

Illinois state representative Deborah Mell has become the state’s first high-profile elected official to legally marry a same-sex spouse.

Mell (pictured, right) and Christin Baker (left) were married last week by a judge in Davenport, Iowa, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While Iowa has marriage equality, Illinois offers gay couples only civil unions — and the couple’s marriage will be recognized as a civil union in their home state.

“Our relationship deserves marriage,” Mell told the Sun-Times Tuesday. “That’s how I feel about it. I mean there was a time in our relationship where it just wasn’t right to call Christin my ‘partner’ or my ‘friend’ ... or even my ‘civil-unionized partner.’ You know she’s my wife. ... We deserve those titles, those rights.”

That didn’t keep Mell from arguing passionately for the civil unions bill, which the state legislature approved last year and Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in January. The law went into effect in June. Mell had announced her engagement to Quinn on the state House floor last year, and she has observed that the presence of out legislators to personalize the issue helped build support for the bill.

Mell, 43, has been a state representative from a Chicago district since 2009. Baker, 36, is a national director for the YMCA. They have been together for seven years. They are planning to have an Episcopal religious ceremony next week to bless their union.