Midwest couples have an ever-expanding menu when it comes to states where they can hold their weddings. No longer are you limited to Des Moins! Last year we picked up Minnesota, and now at last Illinois will soon be added to the list.
The only catch: we don’t know exactly when Illinois will go live. It’ll be sometime before the summer, that much is for sure. But it could be much much earlier.
After Governor Pat Quinn signed the marriage bill last week, legislator Don Harmon proposed an immediate start date rather than waiting until June. That proposal can’t be considered until February, so you’ll have to wait until then to send out your RSVPs.
Southern states are a few years behind, but they’re quickly catching up. While couples search for cooperative officials to issue marriage licenses for future litigation, legislators are crafting bills to overturn marriage bans.
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Virginia could be heading to a popular vote on marriage, but it won’t come for a few more years: first, both bodies of the legislature would have to approve the proposal in consecutive years. That means that the soonest we could see a vote would be 2016 — and possibly even later. It’s very early in the vote-counting process, but it’ll likely take a lot of persuasion in order to pass the bills in the legislature. Once it gets to the voters, our work will probably be a lot easier: polling in Virginia shows that we could have a sizable advantage by the time 2016 rolls around.
hyhybt
Minnesota flipped *this* year, but that’s a minor nitpick.
Cam
VA. also has a court case that will be decided probably way before 2016.