On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Custody on Tuesday, June 3, 2014.
As we noted in a recent blog post, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn inked a legislative bill late last year allowing same-sex couples to marry and have the same marital rights as their heterosexual counterparts (please see our post entry dated May 27, 2014).
That day of long-awaited equality for many Illinois state residents arrived this past Sunday, with gay marriage becoming legal across the state on that day.
As we pointed out in our above-cited post, the law’s enforcement now means that same-sex couples can no longer receive legally disparate treatment regarding important family law matters. Centrally, those include things such as child custody and division of marital assets in the event of a divorce.
One minister and so-called “wedding officiant” in the state says that the law is seminal because it demonstrates “that all humans deserve the same rights.”
Couples in some locales actually beat the “as of” date by marrying prior to last Sunday, owing to the practice in some counties of issuing marriage licenses early.
Some commentators say that the legal change will likely have significant and wide-ranging effects within the state. One such effect will be salutary changes for a host of wedding-related businesses such as catering companies, hotels and restaurants, wedding venues, clothes designers and florists.
Perhaps more significantly, Illinois will now be viewed as a state in which many same-sex couples will opt to remain or otherwise seek to move to.
As noted by a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, states with gay-marriage bans can suffer from a comparative lack of diversity and skilled workers. That in turn can dampen positive economic effects for a region, given that many same-sex couples decide to go elsewhere to live, buy homes and otherwise spend their money.
Source: Chicago Tribune, “At dawn of same-sex marriage, wedding business is booming,” Lolly Bowean and Cheryl V. Jackson, May 29, 2014
