December 14, 2012

Representative Michael J. Madigan
Speaker, Illinois House of Representatives
 (via fax 773-581-9414)
and the House Democratic Leadership:
Majority Leader Representative Barbara Flynn Currie; Deputy Majority Leaders Representatives Lou Lang and Frank Mautino; Assistant Majority Leaders Representatives Edward Acevedo, Dan Burke, Chuck Jefferson, Joseph M. Lyons, and Karen Yarbrough

Dear Speaker Madigan and the House Democratic Leadership:

The urgency is now for Illinois to discard the last vestiges of the separate but equal fallacy and endorse full marriage equality, not just for all of us who reside here as its citizens and deserve the decency of equal treatment under state law, but also for the opportunity to step into a defining moment for the nation as a whole and stand with the argument soon to be before the Supreme Court of the United States that the pursuit of happiness is a right to be afforded equally to all. 

For fourteen years now I have welcomed my domestic partner, Charles Stephen Hughes, into my story, and I have gladly stepped into his own.  We have become words spoken together, two personalities conveyed in one breath.  To those who know us, our names have already been joined to tell the story that we have been blessed to share.  To the very depths of our entwined spirits we feel the urgency to wait patiently no longer but to join our names now in a formal declaration that we commit ourselves to stand as two and one in the eyes of all that is civil and sacred, an alliance true and worthy to be recorded in history as Mr. & Mr. Hughes-Luing, an alliance that deserves the long history and immediate recognition that the word marriage conveys. 

We had been planning a wedding trip to the State of Washington, but have momentarily put our plans on hold as we wait to see if it will be possible for us to realize our destiny here in our home state of Illinois while the moment is at hand for Illinois to stand with President Barack Obama and speak to the nation in support of marriage equality for all of its citizens.  I hope you will do everything in your power to make this happen in the very near future.  Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this petition.

Sincerely,

Philip D. Luing