Vernita Gray, Illinois gay rights advocate, dies

CHICAGO (AP) — Vernita Grey, a gay legal rights activist who wed her companion in Illinois' initial exact same-sex relationship, has died at age sixty five.Grey died late Tuesday of cancer at the similar Chicago house in which she married Patricia Ewert...

 

CHICAGO (AP) — Vernita Grey, a gay legal rights activist who wed her companion in Illinois' initial exact same-sex relationship, has died at age sixty five.

Grey died late Tuesday of cancer at the similar Chicago house in which she married Patricia Ewert in late November, family members friend Jim Bennett instructed The Linked Press. Bennett was among good friends who had been collected at the household when Gray died.

Gray's failing overall health and her would like to marry persuaded a federal choose to buy that an expedited marriage license be granted to the few in advance of the June one helpful date of the state's homosexual marriage legislation. A subsequent judge's ruling then paved the way for much more identical-sex couples to marry early in some Illinois counties.

Grey labored for gay rights for decades, advocating for exact same-sex relationship very long right before many other activists noticed it as a chance, Bennett reported. To acquire above conservatives, she built the circumstance that her Social Protection survivor added benefits should really go to her associate, and her knack for doing work with people across the political spectrum "built everybody really feel that they had a special contribution to shift us ahead," Bennett claimed.

A former cafe operator, Grey labored for the Prepare dinner County state's attorney's business for 18 decades, helping crime victims and witnesses.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised Gray's perform for equality and civil legal rights in a assertion Wednesday.

"Vernita Gray was an inspiration to all who crossed her path, from President (Barack) Obama, who realized her by title, to the victims of violence she comforted and the younger men and women for whom she was a fierce advocate," Emanuel said. "Her legacy can be felt in the many institutions she supported and by each and every LGBT pair in Illinois who is now free to marry the man or woman they enjoy."

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, in a different statement, counseled Grey as "a passionate and pushed advocate for equality in Illinois."

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