The ISBA Assembly on Saturday, June 23, is scheduled to discuss Illinois House Bill 1826, which establishes the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act.

The proposal, if adopted by the legislature, would create legal relationships between both same-sex and opposite-sex couples and avail them of the same protections, benefits and responsibilities now granted to spouses in marriages.

The bill also would provide for stipulated prohibitions, dissolutions of civil unions, and recognition of legal relationships from other states as civil unions in Illinois.

HB 1826 has received support from the ISBA Family Law Section Council, the International and Immigration Law Section Council, the Human Rights Section Council, and the Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

In its memorandum to the ISBA Board of Governors, which reviewed the bill on May 18, the Family Law Section Council urged the association “to grapple with it as a practical issue” and a “legal imperative” in the eyes of the matrimonial bar.

People raise children with co-parents, and purchase homes and cars as unmarried partners. “When the relationship collapses, we struggle for a practical and fair way to resolve the issues,” the Family Law memo pointed out.

“These are real-life practical problems that affect people and their families, particularly those of vulnerable children, without any decent legal mechanism or structure to guide us.”

The section council emphasized that “this is not a geographic or niche issue… It is not a same-sex issue.”

After lengthy discussion the Board of Governors adopted a motion that “recognizes a strong interest in supporting stable families, recognizes evolving definitions of families, and recommends that the Assembly consider the issue of civil unions, including support of current pending legislation in concept.”

The board previously reviewed two other proposals – HJRCA 1 and HB 1615 – that dealt with same-sex marriage but are being held in Rules Committee and considered dead in the present session.