By Shawn Hu

Illinois is the latest in a small minority of states pushing same sex rights. The recently enacted "Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act" (the Act) would essentially afford civil unions between same sex couples the same benefits of married couples. The parties of a civil union would have almost identical rights and benefits of a married couple. Likewise, divorce and maintenance are very similar as well.

But there is a clear conflict between the federal government's policy regarding same sex marriage. The federal government simply does not recognize civil unions of same sex couples as "spouses" or married for the federal laws, as provided in the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA).