CHICAGO -The Illinois Republican Party is taking advantage of the firestorm Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno lit when they publicly rejected a new business in Chicago because the corporation's owner supports traditional marriage.
The IL GOP sent out an email Friday morning, offering a $5 Chick-Fil-A gift card for every $10 donation to the party. And while the IL GOP's party platform spells out clearly its support for traditional marriage, their tapping into the controversy isn't about marriage, it's about the freedom of speech.
"Whatever your opinion is on the issue itself, it’s a dangerous precedent for the government to deny a business license to a company simply for taking a political stance that a politician disagrees with," the email says. "But given the anti-entrepreneurial record of Barack Obama, Mike Madigan and most Democrats, we're really not surprised."
In June, the IL GOP Convention accepted the platform a representative committee recommended to their fellow Illinois Republicans. In all 33 states where voters have had the opportunity to express their views on same sex marriage, voters rejected legalizing same sex marriage. In the states that have legalized same sex marriage, the decisions were made in the courts. Polls show the Americans are evenly divided on the issue.
The topic is now in Cook County courts, where Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan refuse to defend Illinois' law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
And although the email doesn't stir discussion on the matter, under the heading "V. Embrace of the Traditional Family," the Illinois Republican Party 2012 platform says this:
[Though] not universally achievable, the ideal, best environment for children is within a two-parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman. The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in our "DOMA."
D. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment a man and a woman make to each other in marriage. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate a loving, married couple bringing new life into the world and rearing their children in a secure and nurturing environment from conception to adulthood. No law should undermine the importance of that union, divide that union nor unduly burden the efforts of parents to rear a family in a safe and nurturing environment.
The IL GOP's Chick-Fil-A gift card page is HERE. Generous support, based on this issue, would encourage the IL GOP to stand firm on Constitutional free speech and religious liberties.
