Yasmin Nair

Illinois voters were stunned this past week by the news of Governor Rod Blagojevich being arrested on corruption charges.  Along with his chief of staff John Harris, who has since resigned, Blagojevich was charged with, among other allegations, holding out President-elect Barack Obama’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat for a “pay-for-play” deal.  The two men were both out on bail December 9, the day of their arrest.

A proposal for a Chicago gay high school was abruptly taken off the agenda of the Chicago Public Schools November 19 board meeting.  Supporters and opponents of the proposal came to the downtown office of CPS, only to be handed a memo from The Office of New Schools informing them that “[t]he Social Justice Solidarity High School proposal has been withdrawn from consideration during today’s Board meeting.”

The Chicago Ordinance on Human Rights, which banned discrimination against gays and lesbians and other minorities, was passed on December 21, 1988.  Gerber/Hart Library, 1127 W. Granville, recently organized a panel discussion to mark the occasion.

Five years ago, the Cook County Clerk’s Office established a domestic-partnership registry, with John Pennycuff and Robert Castillo being the first to register.  Since then, 1,500 couples have registered for domestic partnership benefits, with the most recent (as of Oct. 1) being Jim Konold and Tim Hackett.