State Green Party Press Release

Illinois Green Party Blasts Proposed "Marriage" Amendment.

March 1, 2004

Contact: Charles Shaw, 773.671.7770, charles@newtopiamagazine.net

ILLINOIS GREEN PARTY BLASTS PROPOSED "MARRIAGE" AMENDMENT
Supports Equal Rights For All Citizens

CHICAGO - The Illinois Green Party agreed last weekend at their State Convention in Springfield to amend their Platform to support marriage rights for all citizens of the United States. The IGP strongly protests President Bush's support for an amendment to the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

Primarily, the Illinois Green Party asserts that the Constitution provides rights for America's citizens and any amendment should expand citizen rights, not contract them. The secondary issue, the institution of marriage, is one which endures across all cultures and religions, and to paraphrase the President, did not always include all citizens of all cultures and religions even in our own country. The majority of American states at one time nullified marriages between whites and blacks, and Asians and native Americans sometimes as well. These bans on marriage across the color line aimed to criminalize the very possibility of certain forms of family. The movement against same-sex marriage is only a continuation of this agenda.

The Green Party sees this as a fundamental public policy and civil rights issue, and cites two of the party's 10 key values as guiding principles: Social Justice And Equal Opportunity: All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law; and Feminism And Gender Equity: We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience.

Charles Shaw, IGP State Media Coordinator and an organizer for Equal Marriage Now! says "we call on all those opposed to a Constitutional amendment to express their concern to their elected officials and local papers. We believe that in a free society, all people should be allowed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that should not be constrained by notions of sectarian morality or their lobby power in our government."

There will be an action at Chicago City Hall on Thursday March 4th at Noon where same-sex couples will demand marriage licenses. To learn more call 773.671.7770.