After two hours of impassioned public comments laden with moral and religious overtones, Oak Park on Tuesday night adopted the state’s first ordinance setting up a domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples.
A 5-2 vote by trustees on the western suburb’s closely watched proposal came at a Village Hall packed with some 250 people, and still others were turned away. The crowd inside spilled over from the meeting room to an adjacent room, where attendees watched the proceedings on television.
Although Oak Park’s ordinance delivers no legal or financial benefits to same-sex couples, it became an issue in which emotions on both sides ran high.
More than 50 speakers addressed the board Tuesday. And while the mood remained diplomatic, the vote was followed by high-fives and cheering.
“Oak Park is a good place to live today and it will be a better place to live tomorrow for some of us,” Trustee Joanne Trapani, the board’s only homosexual, said in an emotional speech before the vote.
Trapani’s comments, accompanied by tears in her eyes, garnered a standing ovation.
One opponent, Rev. Davis Duggins of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, said he was not surprised by the vote. Many observers had expected the ordinance, which was rejected in 1994, to win approval this time around.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” said Duggins, who addressed the board. “I’m concerned and cautious, but I don’t want to be apocalyptic.”
Earlier Tuesday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago issued a statement opposing the proposal.
The registry will allow people in gay or lesbian relationships who live and work in Oak Park to get a certificate from the village acknowledging their commitment to each other. It will not grant gay couples any other rights, such as medical benefits, but gays and lesbians say it still will carry a lot of power.
“The fact is we all live by symbols,” said supporter Jim Kelly. “This symbolizes what the village stands for and doesn’t stand for.”
“It’s not really about marriage and it won’t give us the thousand benefits that married people get,” Ray Johnson, 34, who has lived in Oak Park since 1989, said before the meeting began. “The ordinance gives us something tangible to hold on to.”
Although opposition to the ordinance was more intense three years ago, there were still strong concerns Tuesday from many residents who believe it sends the wrong message to children and violates religious values. Some village residents, including many opponents, have organized a petition drive to place a non-binding measure on the ballot next March asking residents whether they want the registry.
“Since (the registry) carries neither benefits nor privileges, it is pointless and a waste of time for the village staff who would maintain it,” said Trustee Bernard Abraham, who voted against the proposal.
“It is not symbolic,” argued opponent and longtime Oak Park resident Soo Ai Kudo, who fears the registry will lead to other efforts to endorse homosexuality. “The gay community has said it will pressure businesses and schools to enforce an acceptance.”
In its statement, the Catholic Archdiocese said, “Heterosexual marriage and family life is an essential building block of a healthy and well-ordered society.
“As such, it deserves to be both promoted and protected by public policy,” the statement said.
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“Such protection implies, of its very nature, that no other social realities will be granted equivalent status.”
When the ordinance was rejected in 1994, it was paired with another measure giving family benefits to gay partners of village employees. The benefits proposal passed, but the registry was narrowly defeated.
Village trustees promised at the time to continue considering the issue. An intense lobbying effort led by the Oak Park Area Gay and Lesbian Association, coupled with the election of several new trustees last April, helped get the ordinance back on track.
“It gives us a sense of more than tolerance and being accepted,” Reme Auchinleck, 48, who bought a house in Oak Park with her partner, said Tuesday night. “It’s a little piece of paper that says we are real.”
And despite the archdiocese’s position, other Oak Park churches have gone on record in support of the ordinance. Some church leaders included their names in an ad that the gay and lesbian organization ran in local newspapers recently to support passage of the registry.
“People who live in a committed relationship need recognition by the government,” said Rev. Bradley Mickelson, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Incarnation in Oak Park, which has many gays and lesbians in its membership. “There is no marriage option for people in the gay and lesbian community, and this is one way in which we can come out of the closet.”
Former Village Trustee John Troelstrup, who sponsored the original legislation, said opposition has since softened in the community. “It’s a matter of significant recognition of a significant presence in our community,” he said. “I think it makes common sense, religious sense and legislative sense.”
Pamela Freese, co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Association, said the group decided to push for the registry again last October.
“It was the sense that we had enough people with us,” Freese said. “We should have stayed on it three years ago, but we needed to regroup a little.”
Village President Barbara Furlong said the association approached several candidates running for trustee about the registration before they were elected. Said Furlong, “After much discussion and study, the four of us did agree to consider the issue, and eventually decided we would support it.”