With U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's dramatic decision to overturn California's Proposition 8, a voter-approved rejection of same-sex marriage, the United States faces what many believe is only the beginning of a set of sweeping social and political challenges. A recent increase in approval of same-sex marriage in Chicago gives insight into how Chicagoans may feel about the challenges coming our way, but shows that Chicago residents are just as conflicted as the rest of the nation on the issue.
In a somewhat recent Fox News article, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley is quoted in saying that, "There's no question that this decision will encourage additional challenges," including, as many believe, a challenge to the Supreme Court.
Judge Walker had originally decided to suspend his own ruling due to the inevitable controversy until the 18th of August. However, a recent decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals placed an emergency stay on Judge Walker's decision until December, when another hearing has been scheduled. The push and pull from both sides on the decision, with a myriad of conflicting opinions, legal approaches, and constitutional interpretations, only affirms Turley's comment. The issue of same-sex marriage is far from settled.
With the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in a seemingly deadlocked debate, what do Chicago residents think of the issue? A new poll by the Chicago Tribune-WGN shows that the Chicago opinion is as conflicted as the opinion nation-wide. The split is about half and half, with "the majority favoring same sex unions," according to the GoPride.com news team, reporting on the findings of the poll. The news source agrees that the result of the Tribune poll "seems to mirror national polls on marriage equality."
Equality Illinois public policy director Rick Garcia said to the Tribune "Years ago, there wasn't that much support for same-sex marriage...You could barely get to 30 percent. So what 's encouraging in this poll is that we see the numbers are now neck-in-neck, and we see that it's trending in favor of instead of away from same-sex marriage."
Whatever the personal opinion of an individual in Chicago, or the United States largely, trends are moving in favor of same-sex marriage. But where courts and legislatures will take the issue from here seems to be anyone's guess.
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