Ill. Senate Introduces Gay Marriage Bill

Illinois state senator Heather Steans introduced the legislature's first marriage equality bill on Thursday. Called the Equal Marriage Act, the bill was assigned the cheer-friendly number of 2-4-6-8.

"This is a first step to advance the basic freedom in our world, the right that we should all have to be able to define our own families," said Steans, a Democrat from Chicago, at the press conference announcing the bill's introduction.

Steans was joined by openly gay Illinois state representative Greg Harris, who introduced marriage equality and civil unions bills in the house this year. While the marriage bill died in committee, the civil unions measure appeared to gain some momentum, according to the blog Progress Illinois.

Harris plans to reintroduce the civil unions measure in the forthcoming veto session.

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