UPDATE: Illinois Anti-Gay Bill Dies in Senate Judiciary Committee

There is a fantastic update to the proposal in the Illinois Senate to rollback some of the protections in the Illinois Human Rights Bill, which prohibits discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. Thanks to "thousands" of phone calls, the bill sponsored by ultra-conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Bill Brady never made it out of committee.

Equality Illinois just announced that Senate bill 3447, which aimed to allow certain tax-exempt organizations to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and religion, is dead. The bill never made it out of a Senate Judiciary committee. In an email to supporters, Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov said that thousands of Illinoisans called or emailed their state legislators in opposition to the bill and these efforts helped stop it dead in its tracks. The Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, passed in 2005. SB3447 sought to eliminate some of the Act's provisions. If the bill had passed, the Human Rights Act would not have applied to the employment practices of religious organizations, associations, societies and non-profits.

Brady wrote the bill, but later removed his name as chief sponsor. Brady is also seeking to change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. That probably won't happen either.

Thanks so much to everyone who called their legislators.

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[TheRevKev]

DING

DONG

THE WITCH IS DEAD!