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1    AN ACT concerning civil law.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.
 
6    Section 5. Purposes; rules of construction. This Act shall
7be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying
8purpose, which is to provide same-sex and different-sex couples
9and their children equal access to the status, benefits,
10protections, rights, and responsibilities of civil marriage.
11Nothing in this Act is intended to abrogate, limit, or expand
12the ability of a religious denomination to exercise First
13Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution or
14the Illinois Constitution nor is it intended to abrogate,
15limit, or expand the Illinois Human Rights Act or the Religious
16Freedom Restoration Act.
 
17    Section 7. Private clubs. Nothing in this Act is intended
18to abrogate, limit, or expand the exemption for private clubs
19under Section 5-103 of the Illinois Human Rights Act.
 
20    Section 10. Equal access to marriage.
21    (a) All laws of this State applicable to marriage, whether

 

 

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1they derive from statute, administrative or court rule, policy,
2common law, or any other source of civil or criminal law, shall
3apply equally to marriages of same-sex and different-sex
4couples and their children.
5     (b) Parties to a marriage and their children, regardless
6of whether the marriage consists of a same-sex or different-sex
7couple, shall have all the same benefits, protections, and
8responsibilities under law, whether they derive from statute,
9administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other
10source of civil or criminal law.
11    (c) Parties to a marriage shall be included in any
12definition or use of terms such as "spouse", "family",
13"immediate family", "dependent", "next of kin", "wife",
14"husband", "bride", "groom", "wedlock", and other terms that
15refer to or denote the spousal relationship, as those terms are
16used throughout the law, regardless of whether the parties to a
17marriage are of the same sex or different sexes.
18    (d) To the extent the law of this State adopts, refers to,
19or relies upon provisions of federal law as applicable to this
20State, parties to a marriage of the same sex and their children
21shall be treated under the law of this State as if federal law
22recognizes the marriages of same-sex couples in the same manner
23as the law of this State.
 
24    Section 15. Religious freedom. Nothing in this Act shall
25interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any

 

 

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1religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native
2Group. Any religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or
3Native Group is free to choose which marriages it will
4solemnize or celebrate.
 
5    Section 20. Severability. If any part of this Act or its
6application to any person or circumstance is adjudged invalid,
7such adjudication or application shall not affect the validity
8of this Act as a whole or of any other part.
 
9    Section 905. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of
10Marriage Act is amended by changing Sections 201, 209, and 212
11and by adding Section 220 as follows:
 
12    (750 ILCS 5/201)  (from Ch. 40, par. 201)
13    Sec. 201. Formalities.) A marriage between 2 persons a man
14and a woman licensed, solemnized and registered as provided in
15this Act is valid in this State.
16(Source: P.A. 80-923.)
 
17    (750 ILCS 5/209)  (from Ch. 40, par. 209)
18    Sec. 209. Solemnization and Registration.)
19    (a) A marriage may be solemnized by a judge of a court of
20record, by a retired judge of a court of record, unless the
21retired judge was removed from office by the Judicial Inquiry
22Board, except that a retired judge shall not receive any

 

 

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1compensation from the State, a county or any unit of local
2government in return for the solemnization of a marriage and
3there shall be no effect upon any pension benefits conferred by
4the Judges Retirement System of Illinois, by a judge of the
5Court of Claims, by a county clerk in counties having 2,000,000
6or more inhabitants, by a public official whose powers include
7solemnization of marriages, or in accordance with the
8prescriptions of any religious denomination, Indian Nation or
9Tribe or Native Group, provided that when such prescriptions
10require an officiant, the officiant be in good standing with
11his or her religious denomination, Indian Nation or Tribe or
12Native Group. Either the person solemnizing the marriage, or,
13if no individual acting alone solemnized the marriage, both
14parties to the marriage, shall complete the marriage
15certificate form and forward it to the county clerk within 10
16days after such marriage is solemnized.
17    (a-5) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any
18religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native
19Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting as a
20representative of a religious denomination or Indian Nation or
21Tribe or Native Group, to solemnize any marriage. Instead, any
22religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native
23Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting as a
24representative of a religious denomination or Indian Nation or
25Tribe or Native Group is free to choose which marriages it will
26solemnize. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a

 

 

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1refusal by a religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe
2or Native Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting
3as a representative of a religious denomination or Indian
4Nation or Tribe or Native Group to solemnize any marriage under
5this Act shall not create or be the basis for any civil,
6administrative, or criminal penalty, claim, or cause of action.
7    (a-10) No church, mosque, synagogue, temple,
8nondenominational ministry, interdenominational or ecumenical
9organization, mission organization, or other organization
10whose principal purpose is the study, practice, or advancement
11of religion is required to provide religious facilities for the
12solemnization ceremony or celebration associated with the
13solemnization ceremony of a marriage if the solemnization
14ceremony or celebration associated with the solemnization
15ceremony is in violation of its religious beliefs. An entity
16identified in this subsection (a-10) shall be immune from any
17civil, administrative, criminal penalty, claim, or cause of
18action based on its refusal to provide religious facilities for
19the solemnization ceremony or celebration associated with the
20solemnization ceremony of a marriage if the solemnization
21ceremony or celebration associated with the solemnization
22ceremony is in violation of its religious beliefs. As used in
23this subsection (a-10), "religious facilities" means
24sanctuaries, parish halls, fellowship halls, and similar
25facilities. "Religious facilities" does not include facilities
26such as businesses, health care facilities, educational

 

 

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1facilities, or social service agencies.
2    (b) The solemnization of the marriage is not invalidated by
3the fact that the person solemnizing the marriage was not
4legally qualified to solemnize it, if either party to the
5marriage believed him or her to be so qualified or by the fact
6that the marriage was inadvertently solemnized in a county in
7Illinois other than the county where the license was issued.
8(Source: P.A. 95-775, eff. 1-1-09.)
 
9    (750 ILCS 5/212)  (from Ch. 40, par. 212)
10    Sec. 212. Prohibited Marriages.
11    (a) The following marriages are prohibited:
12        (1) a marriage entered into prior to the dissolution of
13    an earlier marriage, civil union, or substantially similar
14    legal relationship of one of the parties, unless the
15    parties to the marriage are the same as the parties to a
16    civil union and are seeking to convert their civil union to
17    a marriage pursuant to Section 65 of the Illinois Religious
18    Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act;
19        (2) a marriage between an ancestor and a descendant or
20    between siblings a brother and a sister, whether the
21    relationship is by the half or the whole blood or by
22    adoption;
23        (3) a marriage between an uncle and a niece, between an
24    uncle and a nephew, or between an aunt and a nephew, or
25    between an aunt and a niece, whether the relationship is by

 

 

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1    the half or the whole blood;
2        (4) a marriage between cousins of the first degree;
3    however, a marriage between first cousins is not prohibited
4    if:
5            (i) both parties are 50 years of age or older; or
6            (ii) either party, at the time of application for a
7        marriage license, presents for filing with the county
8        clerk of the county in which the marriage is to be
9        solemnized, a certificate signed by a licensed
10        physician stating that the party to the proposed
11        marriage is permanently and irreversibly sterile;
12        (5) (blank). a marriage between 2 individuals of the
13    same sex.
14    (b) Parties to a marriage prohibited under subsection (a)
15of this Section who cohabit after removal of the impediment are
16lawfully married as of the date of the removal of the
17impediment.
18    (c) Children born or adopted of a prohibited or common law
19marriage are the lawful children of the parties.
20(Source: P.A. 94-229, eff. 1-1-06.)
 
21    (750 ILCS 5/220 new)
22    Sec. 220. Consent to jurisdiction. Members of a same-sex
23couple who enter into a marriage in this State consent to the
24jurisdiction of the courts of this State for the purpose of any
25action relating to the marriage, even if one or both parties

 

 

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1cease to reside in this State. A court shall enter a judgment
2of dissolution of marriage if at the time the action is
3commenced, it meets the grounds for dissolution of marriage set
4forth in this Act.
 
5    (750 ILCS 5/213.1 rep.)
6    Section 910. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of
7Marriage Act is amended by repealing Section 213.1.
 
8    Section 915. The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and
9Civil Union Act is amended by changing Section 60 and by adding
10Section 65 as follows:
 
11    (750 ILCS 75/60)
12    Sec. 60. Respect for marriages and civil unions entered
13into in other jurisdictions Reciprocity. A marriage between
14persons of the same sex, a civil union, or a substantially
15similar legal relationship other than common law marriage,
16legally entered into in another jurisdiction, shall be
17recognized in Illinois as a civil union. A marriage, whether of
18the same sex or different sexes and providing that it is not a
19common law marriage, legally entered into in another
20jurisdiction, shall be recognized in this State as a marriage
21in accordance with the provisions of the Illinois Marriage and
22Dissolution of Marriage Act, except that Section 216 of the
23Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act shall not

 

 

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1apply to marriages of same-sex couples validly entered into in
2another jurisdiction.
3(Source: P.A. 96-1513, eff. 6-1-11.)
 
4    (750 ILCS 75/65 new)
5    Sec. 65. Voluntary conversion of civil union to marriage.
6    (a) Parties to a civil union may apply for and receive a
7marriage license and have the marriage solemnized and
8registered under Section 209 of the Illinois Marriage and
9Dissolution of Marriage Act, provided the parties are otherwise
10eligible to marry and the parties to the marriage are the same
11as the parties to the civil union. The fee for application for
12a marriage license shall be waived in such circumstances.
13    (b) For a period of one year following the effective date
14of this amendatory Act of the 98th General Assembly, parties to
15a civil union may have their civil union legally designated and
16recorded as a marriage, deemed effective on the date of
17solemnization of the civil union, without payment of any fee,
18provided the parties' civil union has not been dissolved and
19there is no pending proceeding to dissolve the civil union.
20Upon application to a county clerk, the parties shall be issued
21a marriage certificate. The parties' signatures on the marriage
22certificate and return of the signed certificate for recording
23shall be sufficient to convert the civil union into a marriage.
24The county clerk shall notify the Department of Public Health
25within 45 days by furnishing a copy of the certificate to the

 

 

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1Department of Public Health.
2    (c) When parties to a civil union have married, or when
3their civil union has been converted to a marriage under this
4Section, the parties, as of the date stated on the marriage
5certificate, shall no longer be considered in a civil union,
6but rather shall be in a legal marriage.
 
7    Section 997. Severability. The provisions of this Act are
8severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.