First same-sex marriage licenses issued in Will County

JOLIET – It’ll be 39 years this October for Russ Lipari and Ron Steinacher.

But on Monday – the first business day after Illinois’ same-sex marriage law went in effect – the couple breathed a sigh of relief, knowing there’s no longer a need for long-winded explanations to friends, family members or even strangers about who they are to one another.

“After today, I’m calling him my husband,” said Lipari, 58, of Shorewood, as he stood at the front of a short line just outside the Will County Clerk’s Office on Monday in downtown Joliet. “I’ve never liked the word ‘partner.’ I’ve had business partners and he’s definitely not my business partner.”

Other than reaping the same federal benefits that’s offered to opposite-sex married couples, little will change in the couples’ lives, Steinacher said. He and Lipari were among the 31 same-sex couples who sought marriage status in Will County.

The state’s same-sex marriage law officially took effect Sunday, but clerks in most Illinois counties planned to start issuing licenses first thing Monday morning.

The new law allows Lipari and Steinacher to convert the civil union they received in 2011 into a marriage.

By doing it that way, the marriage license could be backdated to when their civil union ceremonies were held, Will County Clerk Nancy Schultz Voots said.

‘You’re stuck with me’

Monday marked the first business day during which all 102 counties in Illinois began issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Just 16 counties had already started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples ahead of June 1 since a federal court ruling in February that declared Illinois’ original ban unconstitutional.

Will County was among the remaining 86 counties that opted to wait until the law’s official start date amid concerns that early issuances could cause legal problems for both the office and the couples.

For David Luecht, 54, and his now-husband, Mark Frost, 51, of Joliet a couple of signatures at the county clerk’s office was all it took to make it “official.”

“It’s official. You’re stuck with me,” joked Luecht, who’s been in a relationship with Frost for the past 18 years and entered into a civil union with him Dec. 3, 2011.

“In reality, this justifies what we did three years ago,” Luecht said. “We’re keeping our December anniversary date.”

Frost said the couple now has rights to certain tax exemptions based on each other’s health benefits, inheritance tax exemption, Social Security and the ability to file taxes as a couple, among other things.

“We’ve had a community that’s affirmed us. Our friends, our family, our church, but it’s great to finally be getting affirmation from the state and federal government,” Frost said. “Now we can say those federal benefits are there. That security. That’s what it’s always been about for us.”

New Lenox’s Patricia Ferchland, 45, of New Lenox exchanged wedding rings at the clerk’s office with her partner of 18 years, Faralynn Bingham, 52.

Ferchland planned to change her Facebook relationship status later in the day from “in a civil union” to “married.”

Lipari and Steinacher said society’s view toward same-sex couples has come a long way since the couple first met in the 1970s as music majors at Eastern Illinois University. Considering the stigma still attached to homosexuality back then, the two reluctantly remained just friends for quite some time before coming out to each other, he said.

“I was afraid that if he thought I was having those kinds of thoughts, it would end the friendship. And he was afraid if I thought maybe he was, it would end the friendship,” Lipari said. “But our friendship was always first and foremost and I think that’s the kind of glue that’s kept us together.”

Never in their lifetime did the couple think they would be able to wed.

“I was 17. He was 18. And when you’re in a gay relationship back in the 1970s, you never really had to worry about making a lifelong commitment to each other because there was no such thing,” Lipari said. “There was nothing to be made, so we just decided to take each day as it came and we’ve been together ever since.”

As of Monday afternoon, 31 couples received same-sex marriages licenses or requested their civil unions be converted to marriages at the county clerk’s office, Schultz Voots said. For comparison, 17 couples sought civil unions June 1, 2011, the day on which civil unions were first recognized by the state.

There are 292 civil unions in Will County, she said.