6 arrested over protest for lesbians

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Six women were charged with trespassing Monday after they demonstrated at a Cook County marriage license office downtown because a lesbian couple was denied a marriage license, police said.

The women “blocked lines, blocked the counter, [and] chanted,” said Andrea Crain who observed the protest as a member of Join the Impact Chicago, a gay rights group. After protesting for five hours, two women went behind a counter. The group was then arrested.

The women had been asked to leave the site several times by county workers, police said.

The women started protesting when two women were denied a license at the county vital records office in the basement of the Daley Center. The group initially read a list of 1,138 “rights” denied to same-sex couples, Crain said.

James Scalzitti