Plainfield Couple Joins Marriage Equality Fight

Ed Hamilton and Gary Magruder are one of 25 Illinois couples represented by a pair of civil rights lawsuits.

Like many couples, they still remember the day they met: Jan. 17, 1964. Unlike many couples, however, they had to wait four decades to make their union official. In 2004 — on their 40th anniversary — Ed Hamilton and Gary Magruder traveled to Canada to be married in a Protestant ceremony. The wedding came seven years before civil unions were legalized in Illinois, but when they were, the couple went down to the Will County Courthouse to make it official in the eyes of the state. Now, the Plainfield men, both retired educators, are part of the fight to make gay marriage legal in Illinois. “We’re asking for equal rights, not a two-tier system where there is marriage and somewhere below that is civil unions,” Hamilton said. “That is the real …

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