PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a relationship coach who instructed me to cut off all sex and even all contact with the guy I was dating until he agreed to marry me. I knew he loved me and wanted to marry me; I just wanted him to do […]
marriage
Posted inArts & Culture
Madding a glorious, romantic throwback
Carey Mulligan in Far from the Madding Crowd. Unabashedly romantic, sumptuously shot and wonderfully acted, Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd is the perfect anecdote for the summer movie overload. (Yes, I know the season has just begun, but I’m feeling special effects weary already.) This is the sort of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Scoot force
My husband’s been saving for a motorcycle, and I was excited about riding on the back hanging on to him – sexy and fun! But then he came home with a Vespa, the little Italian scooter. It just seems so girly. The tiny wheels make it look like a toy, and he’s a big guy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Down on his luxe
I’ve always loved surprising my wife with expensive jewelry and lavish vacations. However, I lost my job, and my new job pays far less. There’s barely money for necessities, let alone luxuries. My wife has been very supportive, reassuring me, “I’d love you if you were flat broke,” which makes me feel even more of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Took the wind out of her zales
Around Valentine’s Day, my beloved boyfriend of a year kept hinting about a big surprise. He’d been talking about moving in with me, and I was expecting a proposal and a ring. I got a fondue pot. I have two children and, apparently, the idea that a man should put a ring on a woman’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Crappily ever after
My husband of a year is the most selfish, inconsiderate, cold-shouldered man I’ve ever known. He’s 24; I’m 22. He behaved similarly when we were dating, but when he proposed, he made promises to treat me better, and I believed him. Well, we pretty much only do what he wants to do. If it’s an […]
Posted inNews
Illinois approves same-sex marriage
The “score board” in the House shows votes on SB10, the same-sex marriage bill that passed the House today. Patrick Yeagle Gay and lesbian couples in Illinois will soon have the right to be married, following the passage today of a highly contentious bill that was years in the making. House sponsor Rep. Greg Harris, […]
Posted inNews
Two Springfield couples fight for same-sex marriage
Randy Walden did everything right, but it wasn’t enough. When Walden’s partner of nine years, Curt Sills, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, Walden and Sills drew up documents giving Walden power of attorney and placing Walden in Sills’ living will. As Sills grew weaker in 2004 and had to be taken to the hospital, […]
Posted inNews
Could redistricting lead to same-sex marriage?
Lawmakers who opposed Illinois’ civil union law in 2010 now face a renewed battle – this time for their reelection. “We want lawmakers to understand that if they oppose civil rights for all people or deny civil rights based on sexual identity, they are going to have a fight ahead of them,” says Lowell Jaffe, […]
Posted inNews
All but married
As Susan Frain and Susan Faupel sit next to each other discussing civil unions, civil rights and the basic notions of partnership and commitment, they laugh, they listen and they remember the other’s part in past dialogues played out over the course of their 23-year relationship. Intellectual equals with similar liberal notions and anti-establishment ideals, […]
Posted inNews
Now, how about equal rights for singles?
Illinois’ civil union law undeniably brings a greater sense of equality between same-sex couples and married couples. That’s a good thing – love is love, and if married couples get hundreds of benefits and protections, same-sex couples should have that opportunity too. But now that the law has passed, it’s time to look beyond what […]
